


Like Normal People

by Lorren



Category: Legend Series - Marie Lu
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 09:10:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 34,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5660794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorren/pseuds/Lorren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story begins shortly after Daniel Alton Wing, "Day", wakes up from his coma.  It follows Daniel and June through the years afterwards, and will continue at least a little past June's twenty-seventh birthday.  It attempts to be true to the entire Legend Trilogy, as well as Life Before Legend.</p><p>The first ten chapters run parallel to the Epilogue of champion, and continues after that.  This work is canon with the Legend Trilogy and with Life Before Legend; the first 14 chapters were written before Life After Legend came out and therefore, nothing from that story is included here.</p><p>The rating is probably between T and M.  I thought it was safer to change it, just in case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Two Missing Years

**Daniel**

I wake up with a gasp, sitting straight up.  I look around at my surroundings.  For a moment, I’m unsure of where I am.  It’s dark, and the furniture around me is unfamiliar.  Then I remember.  _I’m in Antarctica._   There is a lot that I don’t remember, but Antarctica is one detail that I am sure of.

I had a dream about a girl.  Like many dreams, some of the details are fuzzy, like her face.  In my dream, she had long brown hair, spray-painted scarlet.  Although I don’t remember exactly what she looks like, I know that she was the most beautiful girl in the world.

In my dream, I was kissing her.  One of my legs was messed up pretty bad.  My pant leg was cut open to my thigh, and my leg was obviously infected.  I felt lightheaded, but I’m not sure if it was from the leg, or from the girl that I had been kissing.  My shirt was off, and she was sitting on my non-infected leg.

“I love you,” I tell the dream girl, pulling her closer to me.

And then I woke up.

My heart is still pounding in my chest.  I wish that I could go back to the dream and see where it led, but I know that even if I did try to go to sleep, I’d probably end up dreaming about something else.

“Daniel, is that you?”  Eden, my baby brother, asks groggily from across the room.  I look at him and sigh.  _He’s not so much of a baby_ , I think to myself.  _When I was his age, I was already living on the streets, causing trouble for the Republic._   I don’t want that sort of life for him.  Fortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.  I don’t really know what happened in the last two years, but whatever did happen changed our world forever.

I remember a lot about my first several years of living on the streets.  I remember meeting Tess, stealing food, destroying Republican property and creating mischief.  Things start getting hazy when I was about fifteen and a half.  The only things that I can remember from then are my mom being shot, and my brother being executed by the Republic.  Next thing I can remember after that, I’m some goddy war hero.  Evidently, I must think that the new Elector Primo is a good guy, because I told everybody to follow him.  At least whatever did happen allows me to live in this nice apartment with my brother, and he has a scholarship to a university in Antarctica.  A place that I didn’t even know existed, as far as I’m concerned, until I woke up from that coma a few weeks ago.

“It’s me,” I whisper quietly to my brother.  “I was just having a dream.”

“Another nightmare?”

I remember having nightmares occasionally when I was on the streets.  My nightmares were usually the same: being left for dead in the hospital basement, or having my knee cut up by our government after I failed my trial.  I can’t imagine that Eden would have known about those though.  Watching your brother and mother die could create nightmares.  I must have had plenty of nightmares about that during my two missing years.

“No,” I reply.  “It wasn’t a nightmare.  It was actually a little nice.”

I look over at my brother.  I know that he can’t see me, but he grins at me.

In my dream, my knee had been infected, far beyond anything that I remember experiencing when I lived on the streets of Los Angeles.  I reach down and feel my metal knee.  It feels cold to the touch, but it doesn't hurt like my old knee did in the years I lived on the streets.  I don’t remember how I got it.

“Eden, do you know how I got my metal knee?”

“No, I don’t.  You must have gotten it while the Republic was holding me as one of their plague experiments.  I can’t imagine that you would have been able to get something like that while living on the streets.”

I lay back down.  I’m still sleepy, and there’s still a few more hours before we have to get up to get ready for Eden’s first day of classes at the academy.  “Sorry to wake you, Eden,” I say.  “Get some more sleep, yeah?”

It takes me a while to fall back to sleep though.  There’s so much that has happened that I don’t know about.  I have so many questions.

 

When I woke up from my coma, I was shocked to hear that my little brother, Eden, was nearly blind.  I have vague memories of him catching the plague, of seeing a strange red _X_ painted on our home, but I don’t remember him going blind.  When I saw him in my hospital bed on the morning that I woke up from my coma, he seemed fairly optimistic about everything.

“Treatment is going very well!  I can see more now than I could a year ago,” he told me, giving me comfort that I should have been giving him.

Since he was still only twelve, Antarctica wanted me to act as his guardian while he attended the academy.  In Los Angeles, we had had a guardian named Lucy, but the government decided that now that I was seventeen, we no longer needed her assistance.  Since Eden was still half-blind, I would have to help him out with things that required good eyesight, but I didn’t mind.  It would give me something to do.  What do former street kids-turned-war-hero do anyway, after the war is over?  Especially when they can’t even remember the war?

Although I will be escorting Eden between classes, at least until he can figure out his way around the campus on his own, there isn’t much for me to do _during_ his classes, so I head over to the library, where I can get on the Internet.

The Internet is a new thing for me.  I knew that it _existed_ , of course.  I even got to use it a few times in school, before I failed my trial and was kicked out of school for good.  Slum sector schools only had a few computers that all of the students had to share though, and obviously I didn’t get the chance to use it while I was living on the streets.

I enter one of the university's Internet simulation rooms, and my glasses add ten points to my daily score.  “Welcome to the simulation room, Daniel Alton Wing,” the room greets me cheerfully.  “What can I find for you?”

“Show me information on Day,” I say.

“Please be more specific,” the simulation room says.  “Would you like information on the period between sunrise and sunset, or about Daniel Alton Wing?”

“Daniel Alton Wing.”

Immediately, I see thousands of rectangles surrounding me.  I see some rectangles that look like they have videos to play, and other rectangles that look like they have text articles.  They seem to have been produced from countries all around the world.  _Maybe I can get some answers here_ , I think to myself.  _I could be here all day._

But I can’t stay here all day.  I have to take Eden to his next class.

“Could you please give me a warning when I need to leave to get Eden for his next class?” I ask the simulation room.

“Why, certainly, Daniel,” the simulation room answers.

RESPONSIBILITY: +1 POINTS

A notice appears in my glasses.  Since I will be living here, I will be getting an implant soon, although Eden will get his implant after his thirteenth birthday.

I spend the next hour, and all of the hours while Eden was in class that day, going through articles and videos describing the two lost years of my life.  How I had been captured by the Republic.  How everybody thought that I had been executed, but I turn up alive, and end up foiling a plot to kill the new elector.  How I convinced all of the Republic to back the new elector.  I find recent articles about how the Republic surrendered to the Colonies, but I convinced the people to rise up and fight the Colonies instead.

I see some other articles that seem like they are fake though.  “Day and Lincoln are dating.” “I’m having Day’s love child!”  While anything is possible, I’m not sure why I would have been dating a singer that was nearly twice my age, and I would hope that someone would tell me if I had a kid out there somewhere.  The publications with these types of articles had other fairly outrageous articles about other topics as well, so I get the feeling that they cannot be trusted with information about me either.

Although my search filled in a lot of gaps, it didn’t answer all of my questions.  I didn’t see anything about my knee.  Perhaps that wouldn’t be surprising.  It’s not like a knee replacement is likely to make the news.

I absentmindedly twist the paper-clip ring on my right hand.  I was wearing it when I woke up from my coma.  When I was growing up, people would give each other simple, homemade gifts to show their affection.  None of the articles explain where that came from, although I suppose that wouldn’t be something that would make the news either.  I wish that I knew where I got it.  Maybe I’ll remember someday.

One small article, published in a Colonian newspaper, catches my attention:

 

The Republic Rebel, Day, was spotted in a Colonian hospital.  He was escorting a plague-stricken June Iparis, a Republic prodigy.  Rumor has it that the two have been seeing each other for quite a while now.  Attempts to capture the pair were thwarted when they climbed onto the hospital’s rooftop and flew back into Republican territory in a Colonian jet.

 

What does that all mean?  Who is June Iparis?

I shake my head.  Why would I be escorting someone with the plague into a Colonian hospital?  Besides, I know that I don’t know how to fly a jet.

It must be another one of those fake stories, like the ones about me dating Lincoln or having a love child, yeah?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave a comment :-)


	2. Ambassador Iparis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June is 19.

**June**

It’s my nineteenth birthday today.

Fancy parties aren’t exactly my cup of tea; fancy _political_ parties especially aren’t my cup of tea.  It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t exactly enjoy being a Princeps-Elect.  I’m not an ambassador, or a politician, but as an upper-class military officer, I’m expected to attend these fancy political parties every once in a while; they want me to play ambassador on occasion.  In a perfect world, I’d be curled up on the couch with my dog Ollie, watching television.

I’m on a boat in New York City, in the Colonies.  A couple of years ago, a party like this would have been unimaginable.  We had been at war with the Colonies for my entire life up to that point.  Day had been instrumental in bringing that war to an end.

_Day_ , I sigh.  I wonder what he’s doing now.  Tess speaks to him a lot.  She says that he’s doing well.  He’s been taking care of Eden, and has been working as a fitness instructor over at the academy that his brother attends.  Of course, he goes by Daniel now, but he’ll probably always be Day to me.

I stand at the edge of the boat, looking into the night sky.  There are too many lights in Los Angeles to see the stars well.  This is one of the advantages of visiting what used to be New York City; most of the people that used to live here have moved away, and the stars are easier to see.  For a second, I wonder if Day is out there, looking up at the same stars as I am.  Then I remember that since Antarctica is on the opposite side of the world, they don’t even have the same stars to look at.  The thought saddens me a little.

“I’ve heard this city used to be very beautiful,” a voice behind me startles me.  I turn around and see the Elector Primo, Anden.  “Of course, that was before all of the flooding.”

I nod.  I had done an Internet search before coming out here, out of curiosity.  Now that the Internet is no longer censored by the Republic, it’s amazing what you can find out.  I had seen a city with magnificent skyscrapers and buildings.  Today, you could only see the tops of these once proud buildings sticking out of the water.

I point to a green torch sticking out of the water.  “See over there?  That used to be something called the Statue of Liberty.  I guess it used to be a symbol of hope.”

“Well, things are looking more hopeful than they have in years,” Anden replies.  “Perhaps it’s a good omen.”

The boat that I am on is lavishly decorated.  The tables around the room are covered with white tablecloths dotted with tiny white candles.  A red velvet rope surrounds the deck.  On one end, a band is playing in front of a dance floor, which is currently empty.  I make a guess about how many slum-sector families tonight’s dinner would be able to feed.  Some things never change, although the living conditions there have definitely improved since when Anden’s father was the Elector.

“Let me introduce you to some of the delegates,” Anden says, guiding me across the deck.  I meet ambassadors from Mexico, Canada, and Africa.  None of them seem very memorable.  Wealthy aristocrats with fake smiles plastered across their faces, making small talk.

It’s almost always the same.  None of them seem genuine, like Day.

These political games and fake relationships supposedly help keep the peace.  If fancy parties are needed to prevent war, I guess that I can spend the occasional birthday going to one.

 

I run into Tess one evening while on patrol.  She’s wearing her medic uniform, obviously coming home from her job at the hospital.

I give her a wave.  “Tess!” I shout.

She looks in my direction and starts to head my way.  She is beaming from ear to ear.  “Hi!”

“You look radiant today,” I comment.  I walk with her towards her apartment.  Although she is not upper class, she has a home in Ruby Sector now, as a reward for helping to save the Republic.

“I haven’t been this happy since… maybe since I was a little kid!” she exclaims.  “Pascao and I are going to move in together.”

“That’s good news.”  I smile for my friend.  “You two make a good couple.”

“Thanks.  I’m so happy when I’m with him.”  She looks at me thoughtfully for a second.  “It seems silly, back when I was barely a teenager, how I was so jealous of the way that Day felt for you.  When I realized that he would never think of me the same… way…”  Her voice trails off.

I look down.  I try to hide my frown.

“I’m sorry June.  I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s okay.”  I take a deep breath.  “I know that you didn’t mean anything by it.”

After Day woke up from his coma, I explained everything to Tess.  I loved him more than anything else in this world, I told her, which was why it hurt me so much to see the pain in his eyes every time I was with him.  Whenever he saw me, he couldn’t help but to think of the things that he had lost.  John.  His mother.  I didn’t want to hurt him any longer.  I’m not sure if Tess really agreed with my reasoning, but she respected it.

She still knows, even though it’s been a couple of years, that I’m still not over him.  Perhaps I never will be.

“I’m happy for you, Tess.”  I smile at her.  She’s had a difficult life, and deserves happiness.

When I get home that evening, I sit on the couch with Ollie.  He whimpers at me and licks my hand.  He can sense my grief.  I let myself cry, stroking my dog’s soft fur.  He has always been a good comforter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	3. Graduation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day and June are now 20.

**Daniel**

I’m proud of my brother.

After three years of attending the academy in Ross City, Eden is graduating today.  Not only is he graduating at age fifteen, he’s also at the top of his class.  His talent has attracted the attention of people from all over the world.

His eyesight has improved tremendously, but even with glasses, his eyesight might never be completely restored.  Fortunately, he can see enough to do a lot of things on his own.  He has a job waiting for him with the government here.  I’ll be working for Antarctica’s intelligence agency, which is located in the same building, so at least I can help him get to work and back every day.  We both start next week.

I sit alone at the graduation ceremony.  Since my brother is at the top of the class, I get to sit in a reserved section towards the front.  I’ve made friendships with several of my coworkers here at the academy, but there isn’t anybody here that I want to invite to sit with me.  I’m too busy with helping Eden to really make any close friendships, or at least, that’s what I tell myself.

A graduation march begins to play, and the graduates begin to walk into the room.  Eden is one of the first people to walk to his seat, wearing his blue and white cap and gown.  He can see well enough to walk without assistance, although he did practice this route a couple of times yesterday, just in case.  He’ll walk up onto the stage by himself later on and will give the valedictorian speech.  I cheer for him as he walks down the aisle.  He looks in my direction and grins at me.

 

I take Eden to eat at a little café after graduation.  We come here on occasion.

“Congratulations, grad!  What’ll it be today,” the waitress asks, looking over at my brother.  I look at her for a moment.  She’s pretty, with long brown hair and blue eyes.  When I was younger, I might have tried to get her to kiss me, but for some reason, I’m not really that interested.

“I’d like a burger,” my brother says.

 “I’ll have a ham and cheese sandwich,” I say, handing her the menu.

The waitress writes the orders down on her notepad.  “Anything to drink?”

“Get us both some water,” I say.

“She’s pretty, yeah?” my brother says when she’s out of earshot.

I shrug.  “She might be a little old for you.”

Eden shakes his head.  “I was thinking about _you_.”

“I don’t think…”

“You still think about her, don’t you?”

I give him a puzzled look.  “Who are you talking about?”

“I see it.  I might not have the best eyesight in the world, but I’m not blind.  I see how you always look a little longer at girls that look like her, but you never pursue them.  Not even enough to ask for their names.  You don’t like guys, so you must be thinking about her still.”

“Who?”

“The girl that you were with.  In the Republic.”

I shake my head.  “I don’t remember any girl.”

“Maybe not consciously, but your subconscious must remember her.”

I laugh.  “And who is this mystery girl that I’m _supposedly_ thinking about?”

He shrugs, looking away for a moment.  “I don’t remember her name.  She was some big shot in the government though.  You told me that she was hot, and if anybody was to try to take me away from you, that I was to let her know.”

I pause for a second, then hold out my paperclip ring.  “Do you know if she gave me this?”

Eden shrugs.  “Probably.  I was twelve.  I didn’t pay much attention to what you and your girlfriend did.”

I look down at my hand and twist the ring on my finger.  I had always wondered where it came from.  I figure that it must be important though.  If I had had a girlfriend in the two missing years of my life, it would make sense for me to have it.  What doesn’t make sense is, _what happened to her?_

In most cases, time fades memories.  In my case, occasionally time will bring back a memory.  I dream about a girl with long brown hair.  Maybe I’m not dreaming about a random figment of my imagination; maybe I’m remembering things.

The waitress drops off two glasses of water, pulling me out of my thoughts.  I tousle Eden’s white-blonde hair.  “I don’t have time for girls,” I say.  “I have to take care of you, you know.”

“Daniel, I’m fifteen.”  Eden rolls his eyes at me.  “I’m an academy graduate.  I’m starting a great job next week.  When you were my age, you were out saving the world.  You don’t really need to take care of me, yeah?  You just use it as an excuse.”

Maybe I do use Eden as an excuse.  Maybe the real reason that I don’t feel much of an interest in the girls around me has something to do with my paperclip ring.

 

On the way home, we run into Mrs. Wright in the hallway.  She’s an older woman in her early fifties; short, with graying brown hair.  She’s walking slowly; I see her fall in the hallway.  I rush to help her back up.

HELPING SOMEONE: +1

I see in the corner of my field of vision.  Antarctica’s game to try to convince people to be kind and helpful.

“Are you all right, Mrs. Wright?” I ask.  She’s never been the speediest person when I’ve seen her, but I’ve never seen her fall before.

Tears are forming in the corners of her eyes.  “I’ll be okay, dear,” she says.

“Here, let me help you to your room.”  I let her hold on to my arm as I guide her to her apartment.  Eden picks up the bag that she has dropped and follows after us.

I help her into her living room and lower her into a chair.  “What’s wrong, Mrs. Wright?”

Her tears start running down her cheeks.  “I’m okay… it’s just… today I came from the doctor's.”

I put my hand on hers.  “What happened?”

She sighs.  “I’ve been having these terrible headaches lately, and sometimes, as you’ve just seen, I’ve been having trouble walking.  The doctor says that I have something called multiple sclerosis.”  Mrs. Wright looks me in the eyes.  “He’s hopeful that medicines might help, but if they don’t, I’m going to die.”

Suddenly, I remember something.  Incredible headaches.  Using a wheelchair because I wasn’t strong enough to walk.  Then I remember reading an article on the Internet when I first got to Antarctica.  It said “Day is Dying.”  I thought it was one of those tabloid-type articles at the time, but now I realize, it must have been real.  While I don’t remember any of the details, I get the impression that at one point, I was dying as well.  From what, I don’t know.

She must mistake my memory for something like shock.  “I know it’s hard for someone young and healthy like you to understand,” she says quietly.

“No,” I reply.  “Actually, it’s the opposite.  I used to… have terrible headaches.  And I used to have trouble walking sometimes.  They thought I was going to die.”  I shake my head.  “I just don’t remember it very well, because I had amnesia during that time.  You just triggered a memory.”

Her grey eyes look soft.  “You must have been through a lot.”

“I’m fine now, ma’am.”

The door opens.  It’s Mr. Wright.  He looks over at me and his wife.  “What happened, Marsha?  Are you okay?”

“I’ll leave you two alone,” I say, standing up.

I am lost in thought as I wander back to my apartment.  I was dying once, like my neighbor, but I’m not now.  What would I do if I was in Mrs. Wright’s shoes?  Did my girlfriend, whoever she was, leave me because I was dying?

 

Tess.  Why didn’t I think of asking her before?  I’ve known her since she was ten.  I remember her both before and after my lost memories, so she must have been there with me during my lost years.  Maybe she can answer some of my questions.

I check the time zone differences to make sure that I wouldn’t be calling in the middle of the night, and give her a call.

“Hello,” she answers.

“Tess!  This is Daniel.”  Tess used to call me Day, but she started calling me Daniel when everybody else did.

“Daniel!  Good to hear from you.  How are you doing?”

“I’m doing great.  Eden graduated from the academy here today.”

“Yeah, I saw the news up on the JumboTrons today.”

“Really?  They’re talking about it all the way over in Los Angeles?”

“He’s a minor celebrity around here.”

I know that Tess can’t see me, but inwardly, I’m beaming with pride.  I knew that my brother was smart, but I had no goddy clue that people were talking about him all the way over in the Republic.

“I was wondering if you could help me out.  I’m still having trouble remembering things.  From before my coma.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Daniel.  They said that the memories might not come back.”

“Tell me about my girlfriend.  Who was she?  What happened to her?”

“Daniel… I… uh… I can’t tell you that.”  She sounds hesitant.

“Why?  You don’t know?”

Tess was silent for a minute.  “I’m… I’m sorry Daniel.”  Her voice sounded distant.  “I have to go.”

“Oh, okay.  Bye.”

Tess knows something, but she won’t tell me what she knows, or why she can’t tell me what she knows.

Part of me feels lost inside.  I’m missing someone from whatever happened during those two years, but I don’t know why.  It doesn’t seem like I have any way of finding out any time soon, either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New characters! They're not really going to play a major role in the story, but I had to introduce them, because as I was thinking about this story last night, I realized that Day has to learn something before he sees June again, and the only way that he can really learn this lesson is to see it play out through other people.
> 
> I hope you like this chapter. Feel free to leave a comment! Also, if you like the Divergent trilogy, I have written two short novels (out of a planned four) based on their story, that you may be interested in looking at.


	4. Conflicted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June and Day are 21.

**June**

It’s my twenty-first birthday.

Anden invited me to go to Las Vegas with him.  There’s a summer festival going on this week.

It’s a gorgeous sunny day, although a little hot (95º F, this is Las Vegas).  We walk down the street, past rows of handcrafted items, flowers, and fresh fruits.  The colors and smells of fresh strawberries, grapes, and tea fill my senses.  Tea has just recently become widely available, now that the Republic is becoming prosperous enough to import it from China.  Since my family had money, I used to drink tea at fancy dinner parties sometimes, but now it’s even available to the people that live in the slum sectors.  I’m sipping on an ice-cold glass of lemonade as I take in my surroundings.

Anden stops by a flower stall and buys a bouquet.  His security detail is with us, but they give us some space (fifteen feet).

“For the most beautiful birthday girl in the world,” Anden says, handing them to me with a slight bow.  I blush slightly.  Anden has had a crush on me since we were at Drake, although he didn’t tell me about it at the time.

I look down at the bouquet.  It is a beautiful arrangement of roses, and tulips, and turquoise sea daisies.

I think of Day.  The turquoise flowers were growing wild in the cracks of the old abandoned building that we stayed at while I recovered from getting stabbed in the Skiz fight.  Near the place where we first kissed.

My blush deepens a little at the thought of that kiss.  Nobody has ever kissed me like Day did.

“Do you like them?” Anden asks.

“Yes, I like them very much,” I reply, smiling at him.  He doesn’t realize _why_ I like them so much though; unfortunately, it has nothing to do with him.

We stroll down the street, listening to a band playing a cheery tune, browsing the items in the various stalls, and getting a cup of fruit to eat as a snack.  In one of the stalls, Anden purchases a bracelet with fifty polished wooden beads and the letter “J” in the middle.  He puts it on my wrist, and I hold it out to admire it.

“Thank you,” I say.  “This is really pretty.”  He smiles back at me.

As the sun is going down, we leave the festival and get ready to go to dinner.  Anden has made reservations for us at the Bellagio restaurant.  We both go into our respective hotel rooms in order to change into something nicer for dinner.

I change into a black silk dress with red trim.  Tiny diamonds dot the neckline.  The wooden beaded bracelet doesn’t match my outfit, so I carefully take it off and place it on the dresser in my hotel room.

I take out a small velvet box and look at the contents inside.  It’s my favorite necklace.  It’s a silver chain with a teardrop-shaped ruby pendant, surrounded by small diamonds.  Day gave it to me, a long time ago, when he was trying to say goodbye to me.  He was attempting to protect me from the knowledge that he was dying.

As I put on the necklace, a small smile crosses my lips thinking about him.  I miss him so much sometimes.  I know that it’s been four years, but it’s hard to move on.  There was something so different about him.  Anden is nice, but he’s not the same.  He’s so… reserved.  If I had never met Day, I might be happy with the Elector.  Since I did meet him though, I don’t know if I can ever truly give all of my heart to Anden.

I’m just glad that Anden doesn’t know where I got this necklace from.  I’ll never tell him.

 

Anden meets me outside my hotel room.  He holds out his arm to escort me.  “You look quite lovely this evening,” he says.

“Thank you.”

The Bellagio restaurant is located upstairs from my hotel room, so we just have to take the elevator up a few floors to the top, thirty-six floors up.  An elegantly-dressed waiter greets us at the door.

“Glorious Elector, it is a privilege to see you this evening,” he says, bowing.  “And Ms. Iparis.  Let me show you to your table.”

Anden’s security detail is with us, but they stand at the edges of the room.  The Bellagio restaurant should be fairly secure, but the leader of the country can’t take chances.

We are led to a table for two next to the window, with a view of the street below.  I watch the cars drive by on the well-lit street.  The city looks so much different than it did the night that I dressed up like an escort and took Day to see the Patriots.  The night we kissed in the bathroom, and he told me that he loved me for the first time…

I look up at Anden and smile.  I probably will never stop thinking about Day, but he’s not with me tonight.  I had to let him go.  Letting him go is something that I continually have to attempt to do.

I sigh, and look around the room.  The room is beautiful.  It is dimly lit; candles sit in the center of every table.  A few couples are gathered around some of the tables.  It’s a Thursday evening, so the restaurant isn’t overly-full.

“Congratulations on your promotion to commander of the troops in Los Angeles,” the elector tells me.  “You deserve it.”

“I’m sure that you had something to do with it.”

“I would never suggest someone for such a position if they weren’t completely qualified for the job.  I respect the people too much for that.”

The waiter comes to our table with a bottle of wine and fills our glasses.

“That’s what makes you a much better leader than your father.”

Anden frowns.

“I’m sorry.”  I put my hand on top of his.  “I’m sure that he was a great dad.”

“Can I take your order?” the waiter asks.

“I’ll take a steak and shrimp,” Anden says.

“I’d like a steak,” I say.  “With a baked potato and a salad.”

“Very well.”  The waiter writes on his notepad and returns to the kitchen.

“You’re right though,” Anden says.  “My memories of my dad are a lot different than the memories of those who live in the poorer sections of town.  Your friend Day helped me to realize this.”

 

After dinner, Anden walks me back to my room.  He ends up following me in.

“I need to go back to Denver tomorrow,” he tells me.  “I’m sure that we’ll see each other soon.”

I smile at him.  “I had a good time today.  Thank you for inviting me.”

He takes my hands.  “Happy birthday, June.”

He kisses me.  We’ve kissed each other before, back when I was trying to get back into the Republic and was trying to get him to trust me, before the Patriots were supposed to assassinate him, but tonight is a little bit different.  I’m not supposed to feel an attachment to Day anymore.  I don’t have to feel like I’m betraying someone who just told me that he loved me.

I kiss him back.

The kiss is nice.  I don’t feel any passion, like I do when I kiss Day, but Day isn’t here.  Anden is nice, and he cares for me.

“Good night, Anden,” I say after we pull away from each other.  “I’ll see you around.”

After he leaves the room, I change into a pair of sweats and put away the ruby necklace that Day gave me.  I lie down on the bed and start crying.

I still love Day.  I feel so disloyal to him.  Day isn’t mine anymore though.  I need to let him go.  I need to let him go.  I don’t know if I can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I think that my calculations are correct... if June went to Antarctica on September 22, 2132, when she was 16, she would turn 17 on July 11th, 2133... and so this would be 2137, making her twenty-first birthday happen on a Thursday. Phew! I was initially a year off.
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter. Feel free to leave a comment. :-)


	5. True Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel and June are 22.

**Daniel**

The Republic’s Elector Primo, Anden Stavropoulos, is coming to Ross City, along with leaders from several other countries around the world, for a peace conference.  My boss, Julia Saunders, has assigned me with ensuring that security is taken care of for the event.  I don’t need to attend the event myself, but I do need to make sure that all of the places that he will be going to are secure, and that there is a security detail assigned while he is there.

A long time ago, I gave my support to Anden, when one of the leaders of the Patriots was trying to have him overthrown.  As a thank-you for that, the Republic has decided to send me a monthly stipend for the rest of my life.  I don’t even remember what I did, but you don’t turn down free money, yeah?  It sure beats stealing and scrounging for food out of garbage cans.

I don’t particularly enjoy desk work; I’d rather be out in the field, using my skills to capture bad guys, but part of my job in intelligence involves looking up things on the computer.

I have to double-check the guest list.  I’ve already conducted background checks on the members of the delegation from Africa and China; now I have to check the Republic’s guest list.

“June Iparis,” I read.  “Elector Primo’s significant other.”  I groan.  Probably some goddy rich trot who’s never had a care in the world.

“Internet,” I say.  “Tell me something about June Iparis.”  In Antarctica, I can always get any information that I want from the Internet through my implant that connects me wirelessly.

“June Iparis,” the Internet responds in my ear.  “Born July 11, 2116.  Achieved a perfect trial score of 1500.  Graduated from Drake University at age 15.  Former Princeps-Elect.  Received a commendation for killing Commander Natasha Jameson, a traitor to the Republic.  Currently in charge of all military troops in Los Angeles County.  Dating the Republic’s Elector Primo.”

I roll my eyes.  _Is this girl for real?_   At any rate, she’s not a security threat.  I approve her request to be on the guest list.

I’ve heard that name before though.  I rub my thumb and index finger on my temple.  _Where have I heard that name before?_

Then I remember.  She was that girl that the Colonian tabloid reported that I had taken to a hospital for plague treatment, then climbed onto the hospital rooftop and flew back into the Republic.  What a joke.  Like the rumors of me and Lincoln.  At least June is close in age to me.  Still, it was a ridiculous thing for them to have printed.

 

Eden and I run into the Wrights on our way home from work.  Mrs. Wright looks very pale.  I’ve noticed her losing weight over the last couple of years.  Even though she is using a walker, Mr. Wright is with her, holding on to her arm, trying to make sure that she doesn’t fall.  Mr. Wright is also trying to carry her shopping bag.

“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Wright,” I say.  “Let me help you.”  I offer to carry Mrs. Wright’s shopping bag for her.  Eden goes to the other side of Mrs. Wright, helping her to stay steady.

“You two boys are too kind,” Mrs. Wright says.  She is such a sweet lady.  It’s too bad that she is so sick.

HELPING SOMEONE: +1

I see my score go up.

“I need to get Marsha into bed,” Mr. Wright says.  “She’s had an exhausting day.  Would it be too much trouble for you to help us out?”

“We’d love to help,” Eden says.

We help Mrs. Wright into her bedroom, pull back the covers, and help her take off her shoes.

“Thank you, my dear,” Mrs. Wright says to me, after I pull the covers up around her.

“Is there a reason why you don’t have a wheelchair?” I ask.  “I could imagine that it would be easier to get around in than a walker.”

“Wheelchairs are pretty expensive,” Mr. Wright says.  “Marsha’s medication is fairly costly, and after we pay for that every month, we’re not left with a lot of extras.  We’d love to get one someday, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get one any time soon.”

I nod.

I try to think about what I would do in their shoes.  I know that I was dying once; what did I do then?  Did I run away?  Did my girlfriend help me into bed after an exhausting day?

“How do you do it?”  I ask.  “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude.  Isn’t it hard, getting sicker every day?  Watching your loved one get sicker?”

Mr. Wright puts his hand on my shoulder.  “It’s a part of life,” he says.  “When you love someone, you stick by them.  Even if it hurts to watch them wither away.  Even if you have to put in effort to help them get dressed.  I’m sure that you would do the same for your brother, if he needed it.”

“It’s true,” Eden said.  “You once broke into a hospital to try to get plague medicine for me.”

“I did?”

Eden nods.  “I read in the newspaper that you jumped out of a third story window to get away.”

“See?”  Mr. Wright says.  “You did whatever you could for him.  Although I really wouldn’t advise you to jump out of a third story window again, Daniel.”  He smiles at his wife.  “I know that it sounds strange, but I think that the last couple of years of caring for Marsha has made me love her more than ever.”

“I love him more than ever too,” Mrs. Wright adds, beaming at him.

“That’s what true love is all about.”  Mr. Wright stands up.  “Well, I think that we should let Marsha get some rest.”

I nod.  “Have a good evening,” I say.

Eden and I walk back to our apartment in silence.

“Hey,” I say to Eden, after we get to our apartment.  “I think that we should get them a wheelchair.  We can afford it.  What do you say?”

“That’s a great idea.”

“Internet,” I say.  “I would like to buy a nice wheelchair.  One of those electric ones.  Deliver it to the Wrights next door.  Don’t tell them who it’s from.”

“Would you like to purchase this wheelchair?”  A picture of a nice electric wheelchair overlays my field of vision.  The price is affordable, considering that I don’t even spend all of the money I earn anymore and I have a ton of money in my bank account; it looks good.

“Yes, send them that one.”

“Your order has been processed.  It should arrive within two working days.  Thank you for your purchase.”

My daily score goes up by another five points.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the chapter title didn't fool you into thinking that Day and June were getting back together... at age 22! If you've read the last chapter of Champion, you should know better ;-).
> 
> So far, the outline has at least 12 chapters for this story, and there will probably be a few more after that (I just haven't figured out what they're going to do yet).
> 
> Hope that you're liking this story so far!


	6. California Commander

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day and June are 23.

**June**

I take a deep breath.  Today is my twenty-third birthday, and I’m also going to be inducted as Commander of the entire state of California.  I will be the youngest person to ever be given such a responsibility.

I look at myself in the mirror and make sure that nothing is out of place.  It wouldn’t do for my uniform to look sloppy on this very important day.

I leave the bathroom at Batalla Hall and take my place offstage.  I see a few high-ranking military officials milling about.

“June!”  I turn around and see my boyfriend Anden, the Elector Primo.  I give him a smile.

“Elector!”  We are almost always formal with each other in public, especially on formal occasions like this.

“Are you nervous?”

“A little.  It’s strange being the center of attention like this.”

“That can’t be true.  Someone as lovely as you should be used to this kind of attention.”  He brushes some of my hair behind my ear.

I blush.  Anden is always very complimentary.

At that moment, I hear a bugle playing.  “Almost time!” an enlisted army official announces to those of us that are offstage.

We line up, then march onto the stage and take our seats.  Anden walks up to the podium.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!” he announces.  “We are all here to induct the new Commander of California.  I’m sure that we can all agree that she deserves this position.”

“As Commander of Los Angeles County, Commander June Iparis has turned this region into one of the safest counties in the country.  Corruption, which was once rampant across the country just a few years ago, has been almost completely stamped out in Los Angeles County.  It will be my honor to swear her in today.”

With that, I stand and approach the Elector.  I hold my hand up and repeat the oath of office.

 

After the induction ceremony, I meet Tess and Pascao for lunch.  I see them fairly regularly, and I want to make sure that they get the chance to share in my special day.  Tess and I ended up seeing each other a lot during the five months that Day spent in a coma, when we were both waiting for him to wake up.

Tess greets me with a hug when I find our table at the restaurant.  “Congratulations, cousin.”

“Thanks,” I reply.  “Good to see you.”

“I’m looking forward to tonight,” Tess says.  “I’ve never been to a fancy ball before.”  I have invited them to tonight’s celebratory ball, which is being held in my honor.

“I’m glad that you two will be able to come.”

“Thank you for letting me borrow that beautiful diamond necklace.”

“No problem.”

Working at a hospital pays a decent salary, but jewelry is still pretty expensive with her pay.  Last week I helped her pick out a dress, and I let her look through my jewelry to find something to wear with it.

I remember how her eyes were immediately attracted to the ruby pendant that Day gave me.

“That one is pretty,” she said.

“You can borrow any of my jewelry,” I told her, “Except, unfortunately, that one.  That one has sentimental value.”

“Like a family heirloom or something?”

“You could say that.”

“Or…”

I shot her a look of warning.  Since I was dating Anden, I didn’t want to admit out loud why the necklace really meant a lot to me.  Even if my boyfriend wasn’t in the room.

“Why don’t I wear this one?” She suggested, pointing to a necklace with a row of diamonds on it.  “This one is really nice too.”

“Here,” I said, opening another drawer of my jewelry box.  “This diamond hair clip would look really nice with it.”

I won’t be wearing Day’s necklace tonight, since it won’t match my outfit, but it’s still the one piece of jewelry that I will never loan out.  _Never lend anything that you would be devastated if something happened to it_ , I think to myself.

“I talked to Daniel the other day,” Tess said, looking up from her menu.

“How’s he doing?” I try to sound detached, but inside, my heart has suddenly sped up.

“He’s doing well,” she said.  “He got a promotion at his intelligence job.  Evidently, Eden was on a team of engineers that developed some sort of improved bionic leg.  It should help some of the people that were injured in the war.”

“Wow.  He’s such a smart kid.  He’s only eighteen too.”

_Day and Eden are never going to come back_ , I think to myself.  I don’t think that I would.  Antarctica has so many things that the Republic doesn’t have.  They’ve been there for six years; surely, that is home to them now.

_But I have Anden,_ I tell myself.

The thought feels a little hollow to me.  I do care about him, and he cares about me.  I’ll get to see him tonight at the ball.  That’s a good thing, right?

 

As Anden escorts me to our table at the banquet, I notice that Tess and Pascao are already seated.  They smile when they see me.

“This is some party, yeah?” he says to me, beaming.

Pascao looks nice in his military dress outfit.  He joined a few years ago, when I suggested that his skills could be useful to the Republic.  He now uses the skills that he developed in the Patriots teaching cadets at Drake.

I nod to him.  “Elector, you’ve met my friends before, Pascao and Tess.”

“Yes,” he replies.  “June was very happy to hear that you could come this evening.”

I look over at Tess.  Although her blue silk dress is not as fancy as most of the dresses that are being worn this evening, it still looks stunning on her.  The diamond necklace and diamond hair clip complete the outfit, leaving her looking absolutely gorgeous.

“You look wonderful this evening,” I say to Tess.

“Thank you,” she says, looking slightly embarrassed.  “These clothes make me feel so pretty.”

“Well, you do look great.”

Tess smiles.  “It’s amazing where life can take you.  I mean, just eight years ago I was living on the streets and rummaging through the garbage for food.  Look at me now.  I’m wearing a beautiful dress, sitting at a table with the Elector Primo!”

“Tess was one of Day’s friends,” I tell Anden.  “They were both helping each other survive.”

Tess gets a faraway look in her eyes.  “Sometimes I wonder what my parents would say, if they could see me at times like this.  Or my brothers and sisters.”

I laugh quietly.  “I doubt that any of them are here tonight.”  I frown slightly.  “Do you still feel bitter – about what they did to you?”

Tess was the fifth child of poor parents.  When she was nine years old, they locked her out of the house and never let her come in again.  “No,” she shakes her head.  “I don’t think that they were trying to be hurtful on purpose.  We were poor, and they could barely afford to feed all five of us kids.  I guess they figured that if they had one less person to feed, then they could take better care of the kids that they still had.  Things like that happened to a lot of people back then, not just to me.  Besides, if they hadn’t left me, I would never have met Day, and I wouldn’t be here today.  Maybe I would have even failed my trial.  It all worked out.”

I find it amazing how Tess could have such a cheerful outlook on things.  I don’t know if I could have ever been so forgiving of my parents if I had been in the same situation.

Anden briefly kisses my cheek.  “It’s time for me to introduce you,” he says.

I watch him as he walks away towards the stage.

We all have a wonderful time that evening.  As the waitstaff bring out the dinner, I notice that Tess and Pascao are watching to see which fork I will grab for each course.  It’s something that I was taught at an early age, but I can see how it would be confusing if it was all new to you.  They don’t have any problem enjoying themselves after dinner, when the dancing began.  They make a great couple.  I’m happy for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like it. Leave a comment if you like!


	7. Moving On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day is 25. Note, this chapter skips two years since the last chapter, not one.

**Daniel**

“Mmm, dinner smells delicious,” Eden exclaimed as we entered our apartment after work.  “What did you make today?”

“I put some honey garlic meatballs in the crockpot this morning before we left for work,” I tell him.  If you want to make the vegetables, I’ll cook some pasta to go with it.”

“It’s a deal!”

It’s hard to believe that Eden and I have been living in Antarctica together for eight years already.  I’m twenty-five, and my years as a teenager living on the streets seem like an ancient memory.  I think that those years have influenced the way that I live today though.  Even though I have a really good income in intelligence, the Republic still sends me money every month, and Eden makes a good living as one of the world’s top up-and-coming engineers, we still share our expenses and live in a modest one-bedroom apartment.  It’s all we really need.  We both have built up our own fairly substantial savings accounts, if we ever need the money.

I watch Eden as he prepares some steamed broccoli.  Although he doesn’t have perfect vision, even with glasses, he has adapted well.  He can do almost anything that a normal-sighted person can.  He reminds me of Tess in this way, although Tess told me that she had eye surgery a few years ago and can see perfectly now.

I haven’t talked to her in a while.  I should give her a call.  I wonder if she’s still with Pascao.  Last I heard, they were living together in Ruby sector.

Since we live together, we both share kitchen duties.  Since it’s easier for me, I cook most of the main dishes, and Eden usually does the dishes.  It works out.

I put some spaghetti in my own pot of boiling water, and set the timer so I won’t forget when it is done.

I notice that Eden is looking at me strangely.

“Are you doing okay?”

_That’s an odd question._   “Of course I am.  I feel great.  I have to take a medical exam every year for my job, you know.  I haven’t even had trouble with my knee since I woke up from my coma with a new one.”

“Daniel, I’m not talking about you physically.  Are you okay with how your _life_ is going?  I’m worried about you.”  He sets the serving spoon that he's been using down on the counter.

“What do you mean?  You’re here, we have a nice place to live, what else do we need?”

Eden shakes his head at me.  “Let’s see… I think you’ve been on _one date_ since we moved here?  Don’t you ever want to meet someone?”

I put my arm around my little brother.  “I need to make sure that you’re taken care of.”

He shakes his head, giving me an incredulous look.  “Daniel, I’m twenty years old.  On top of that, I’m not blind anymore.  I don’t need you to take care of me; and what would you do if I meet someone special?  Would you move in with us so that you could continue to take care of me?”

I sigh.  “I don’t know.  You’re all that I’ve got.”

“I don’t have to be.  We meet nice people all of the time.”

“I don’t know.”  The oven beeps, informing me that our pasta is done.  “If I could choose anything, I’d go back to Los Angeles.  I know that we’ve been here for a long time, but… I still feel like I need to find answers, if I’m ever going to be able to move on with my life.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find the answers here.”  I put a colander in the sink and strain out all of the excess water in the pasta.

Eden frowns.  “Maybe we could go back someday.  They have engineering jobs there.  I do like it here, but you’ve done so much for me, I feel like, maybe I owe this to you.”

I shake my head.  “I could never ask you to do that for me.”

“Maybe it’s not your decision.  You have to let other people do things for you sometimes.  At any rate, it’s not like we’d pack up and go tomorrow or anything.”

 

I hear a commotion out in the hallway.  I look out the door to see what is going on.  A few medics are rushing through the hallway with a stretcher.  They stop outside our neighbor’s door.

_Oh no_ , I think to myself.  _It must be Mrs. Wright._

The last few years had been hard for the Wrights.  Although the wheelchair that we sent them anonymously had come in handy, Mrs. Wright had spent a lot of the time bedridden.  I haven’t seen her out for several months, in fact.  Eden and I had been stopping by about once a week to check up on them, and sometimes we brought them some soup, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to get any better.

I could tell that the stress of caring for his sick wife was getting to Mr. Wright, but I could also tell that they loved each other, all the way until the end.  Every once in a while, I would see their children stop by to check up on them, but for the most part, they were by themselves.

I saw Mr. Wright for the last time at her funeral.  In Antarctica, like in the Republic, the people wear white to funerals.  He was wearing a white business suit.

I give him a hug.  “I’m sorry to hear about your beloved wife,” I say.

“It had to happen sometime.”  Tears were welling up in his eyes.  “My son has asked me to come live with him, so at least I won’t be alone.  I’m thankful that you and your brother were so kind to us these past few years.”

 “I couldn’t imagine having it any other way,” I tell him.

 

My eyes flutter open.  I had another dream about _her_.  This time, it’s the dream where we are in bed together.  I wake up while we are half undressed; while I am kissing her.  Sometimes this dream goes on longer, but not tonight.

I can’t figure out whether I like this particular dream to end early, or whether I prefer it if the dream continues until we’re a tangled mess in each other’s arms.  When the dream continues, I wake up with a longing to be with her in real life so bad that it hurts.  When I wake up earlier, I feel hollow and empty because my time with her has come to an end, until I dream about her again.

For some reason, whenever I dream this dream, one of my hands is always bandaged.  She always has the same scar in her side; in fact, whenever I dream about her and her side is exposed, she always has the same scar.

In one of my dreams, we’re in the slums together, and I’m bandaging up a fresh wound in her side, in the same spot where her scar is.  I almost kiss her in that dream, but I choose not to.  If I am dreaming about a real girl, and real events, then the dream where I’m bandaging her must come before all of the others.

I still never see her face in any of my dreams, or if I do, I never remember what she looks like.  I know that she has long brown hair, and I get the impression that she is the most beautiful girl in the world, but I never see exactly what she looks like.

It’s quiet.  I look at the digital clock on the side of the wall, and it’s not time to get up yet.  Eden is still asleep on his side of the room.  Good.  I always hate it when my dreams wake him up.  If he asks what I’m dreaming about, I’m always vague.  I’m sure that he’d think I was cracked if he found out that I’ve been dreaming about the same girl, who may or may not even exist, for the past eight years.

As it often does when I have these dreams, it takes me a while to fall back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter! Leave a comment if you want to.


	8. Alone Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June is 26.

**June**

It’s my twenty-sixth birthday today.

I’ve had good birthdays and bad birthdays.  Some years I get to go to really nice parties, other years are quieter.  My birthday was hard; I had to spend it without Ollie for the first time.  The apartment seems emptier without him, but I don’t think that I’ll get another dog any time soon.  Ollie was special, partly because my brother, Metias, got him for me.

I don’t know how I feel about this birthday.  Tess and Pascao have invited me over to their house for a birthday dinner.  They told me that I can bring Anden along if I want to.

I don’t.

I ring the doorbell, and I hear movement inside Tess’s apartment.  Twenty-five seconds later, Tess opens the door and greets me with a smile.

“Happy birthday, cousin!” she exclaims.  “I’m glad that you could make it.”

She looks over my shoulder.  “Anden couldn’t come?” she asks.

I shake my head and sit down on her couch.

“No,” I say, shaking my head.  “We’re not together any more.”

“I’m so sorry,” Tess says, putting her hand on my shoulder.  “What happened?”

I sigh.  “It’s not a bad thing,” I say, “I just realized that he wasn’t the right person for me.  I think that both of us have known it for a while, but we just didn’t want to admit it.”

Tess glances over at Pascao.  I’m sure that they’re communicating something wordlessly to each other, the way couples that have been together for eons sometimes are able to do, but I’m not sure what they are thinking.

“We both realized that I’ll never be able to love him the way that he wants me to.”

“And you still have to work with him,” Tess says.  “How’s that going to work out?”

I shrug.  “I don’t think that it will be a bad thing or anything.  We’re still friends.  We’re just going to be able to move on, that’s all.”

“Well, if you need us for anything, we’re here for you,” Tess says.  “Even if it’s in the middle of the night.”

I smile at them.  “You guys are too kind.  I think I’ll be all right though.”

“I hope you like lasagna,” Pascao says.  “It’s one of my favorite things that Tess has learned how to cook.”

“I love lasagna.”

I exhale a breath that I didn’t even know that I had been holding in.  _An evening with Tess and Pascao will be good for me_ , I think to myself.

Work had been busy that week, and Anden had been away in Denver, and I realized that I didn’t really miss him all that much.  If you’re madly in love with somebody, shouldn’t you miss them when they’re away for a long time?  I realized that although I considered him to be a good friend, I didn’t really want more.

On top of that, Anden had been giving me hints that I think that he was going to ask me to marry him.  We had been a couple for more than four years, and he had shown an interest in me before that, so I suppose marriage would have been a logical progression, but the thought of marrying him left me feeling empty.  He lacked the passion that I was looking for, unlike –

Well, Day was gone, out of my life forever, I’m sure.  Still, there must be someone out there that will make me feel like Day did.  I’ll just have to keep looking.  I can’t look if I’m with the Elector.

Tess walks out of the kitchen with a big pan of lasagna in her arms.  “Time for dinner!” she announces.  “I hope you’re hungry!”

 

After we eat our lasagna, corn, and garlic toast, Tess brings out a small, chocolate-flavored birthday cake with a 2 and a 6 candle on them.

“You shouldn’t have!” I exclaim.

“We wouldn’t have done any less for our best friend!”  Tess says.  She strikes a match and lights the candles.  “Make sure you make a wish!”

I don’t know what to wish for.  I already have everything that I need, so I decide to wish for happiness.  I close my eyes and blow out the candles.

As we enjoy our cake, Tess gets a very serious expression on her face.  “This might not be the best day to tell you this, but you might get upset if we don’t tell you and you find out from somewhere else.”

“What is it?” I ask.

Pascao reaches over and puts his hand over Tess’s.  “We’re getting married!” he says.

I smile.  “Well, it’s about time!  How long have you been together, anyway?”

“A long time.”  Tess laughs quietly.  “We weren’t sure how you’d react, after you told us about Anden.”

“Don’t be silly.  I told you, it wasn’t a traumatic breakup or anything.”

“We still won’t be getting married for a while,” Pascao says.  “Tess really wants a fall wedding, but we want more than a couple of months to plan, so we’ll probably set the date for next September.”

“And I would love it if you would be my bridesmaid.”

“Of course I’ll be your bridesmaid.”

“If we’re lucky, maybe we can convince Day, err, Daniel, and Eden to come from Antarctica.”

The mention of Day’s name makes my heart beat faster.  I smile at the thought.  _How silly to feel that way about someone after all this time!_   “I bet they’ll come.  After all, you’re practically Day’s little sister!”

“I hope that won’t bother you, seeing him again.  I know how you wanted to let him go and everything,” Tess says.

“No, of course it won’t bother me.”

“He asked about you once, you know.”

I shake my head.  “He asked about me?  When?”

“Several years ago.  Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him any details.  He didn’t remember your name or anything, but he evidently figured out that he had had a girlfriend at some point and wanted to know more about what happened.  I changed the subject and then told him that I had to go.”

_Day asked about me?_   I don’t know how I should feel about that.  Part of me is flattered, but part of me is afraid.  If he ever does get those memories back, it will only bring him pain again.

“Anyway, after that one time, he never asked again, so he probably forgot about it.”  Tess shrugs nonchalantly.

_Day is much more perceptive than that._   He figures things out.  Like when I was trying to track him down and he figured out that I was associated with the military because of the way I tied a knot.  More than likely, he figured out that Tess wouldn’t give him any information, so he either looked for information elsewhere, or he’s still wondering.

“It will be nice to see him again.  You can always introduce us.”  _Did I really just say that?_   What am I getting myself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is birthday #27. Yay! I'm looking forward to telling the final scene of Champion from Day's perspective. I hope that you will like reading it, and this chapter, too.


	9. Back in the Republic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day and June finally meet again after 10 years.

**Daniel**

The flight from Antarctica to the Republic is long, but I can’t sleep.  I’m too nervous.  Even after ten years, Los Angeles still feels like home to me.  My missing history is there.  Tess is there; she’s like the little sister that I never had.

When Tess called last year to let us know that she was going to get married, I knew that I had to be there for her wedding.  It’s hard to believe that she’s old enough.  Last time I saw her, she was what – fifteen?  I didn’t even spend much time with her when she was that age either, as Eden started school shortly after I woke up from my coma.  A big part of me still remembers Tess as the thirteen-year-old that would patch me up when we were living out on the streets.  Now she’s working as a nurse.  She had a gift for healing even back then.

I look over at Eden, who is sleeping quietly in the seat next to me.  He was barely twelve when we left.  Most of the life that he remembers has happened in Antarctica.  I know that he’s interviewing for that job at Batalla Hall on my account.  Knowing that he was mainly doing this for me, I tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted.  I would have done the same thing for him though.

Our plane touches down in the early evening.  We pay a driver to take our things to our hotel room; I want to walk around the city a little bit before we have to get ready to go to Tess’s.  In Antarctica, we spent way too much time indoors.  I want to smell the salt air for a change.  Even if it is goddy hot.

The city feels the same in some ways, but I also notice a lot of differences.  It’s cleaner.  There aren’t as many soldiers out on patrol.  Part of the way I feel could be that _who_ I am has changed.  I’m wearing clean, presentable-looking clothes instead of dirty rags.

Eden is telling me about a new type of 3-D printer that he’s working on.  It’s going to revolutionize the way that things are made, he tells me, animatedly, because it will be able to take some of the material that it needs to make things straight out of the air itself.  I don’t understand all of the details, but it does sound pretty exciting.

“And it will be able to take some of the carbon out of the air, so we –” he stops in the middle of his sentence and smiles.

_Wow._

I’m not sure what Eden is telling me about anymore.  All I can see is the military officer walking on the street in front of us.  She is the most beautiful girl that I have ever seen in my life.  I try hard not to stare.  She is amazing.

I notice that she picks up the pace.  Maybe she thinks that we’re a couple of troublemakers.  I don’t know.  She must be in a hurry for some reason.  There’s something about her though… that confuses me.  I don’t know what it is.  Maybe she has a clue to the questions that I’ve had since I woke up from that coma ten years ago.

Before I know it, she’s walked past us.  Gone forever.

“She was cute, wasn’t she?” Eden says quietly, after we are out of earshot.  I thought that he stopped trying to get me to ask girls out years ago, but I guess not.

“Yeah, she was,” I reply.  I feel like I'm in a dreamy haze.

Eden stops.  “You need to go after her.”

“What?  You’re crazy.”

“No, I mean it.  In fact, I _order_ you to go talk to that girl.  I’ve never ordered you to do anything in your life, and I’ll probably never tell you to do anything ever again, but this is ridiculous.  You ARE going to go talk to that girl.  Right now.”

His tone of voice told me that he was serious.  I’m not sure why, but he was speaking to me with the intensity that a parent might have if their three-year-old ran out into the street in front of an oncoming car; and it’s true, he never had ordered me to do anything before.

“Okay, fine.”  I roll my eyes.

I turn in her direction.  She’s walking away.  I speed up so I can catch up to her; she slows down.

When I reach her, I look into her eyes.  They are amazing – brown with gold flecks.  She is so beautiful, yet, oddly familiar.  Perhaps Eden knows best this time.

“Excuse me,” I say.  “Have we met before?”

She looks at me for a moment.  She’s trying to think.  Maybe she’s trying to place me, if we have seen each other before.

She shakes her head.  “No.  Sorry,” she whispers.

I frown.  I run my hand through my hair, as if that will help my brain cells retrieve my lost memories for me.  Unfortunately, it never works.

“Oh.  I’m sorry to bother you, then,” I say, quietly.  I shake my head.  _She looks so familiar._   “I just… you look really familiar.  Are you sure we don’t know each other from somewhere?”

I continue to look at her.  The more I look at her, the more that I’m sure that I’ve seen her before.  I just have no idea _where_ we’ve met.

I shake my head.  “I _have_ known you.  A long time ago.  I don’t know where, but I think I know why.”

“Why, then?”

I think for a second.  She’s going to think that I’m cracked.  _How do I put this?_

I step closer to her.  Something about her just draws me to her.  I laugh a small, nervous laugh.  “I’m sorry.  This is going to sound so strange.  I… I’ve been searching a long time for something that I think that I lost.”

She smiles at me.  “It’s not strange at all,” she tells me.

I smile back at her.  _At least she doesn’t think that I’m completely cracked._   “I felt like I found something when I saw you back there.  Are you sure… do you know me?  Do I know _you?_ ”

For a moment, I think that she’s going to tell me that she _does_ remember me, and that she’s going to tell me who she is, and why I should remember her.

“I have to go meet up with some friends.”

“Oh.  Sorry.”  I feel deflated.  “I do too, actually.  An old friend down in Ruby.”

She gets an odd look on her face.  Like she’s surprised.  She raises an eyebrow.  “Is your friend’s name Tess?”

That wasn’t what I expected to hear from her.  I smile.  “You know her.”

“Yes,” I say.  “I’m having dinner with her tonight.”

I can’t help but to stare at her now.  _Where do I know her from?_

I try to scan my brain for something, anything that would remind me of who she was.  Then I remember something.  It’s not much, but I know that it is her.

I was watching a Skiz fight from afar.  I gave Tess some of our money so we could bet on the outcome.  That bartender that I had talked to maybe a couple of days before that – I think her name was Kaede – was fighting.  She almost picked Tess.

Then this girl shows up and takes Tess’s place.

This girl ends up winning the fight, but she doesn’t want to continue fighting, which is against the unwritten rules.  The crowd is getting angry.  Instead of letting Tess’s savior feel the wrath of the crowd, I throw out a dust bomb.  She has fallen onto the ground; I hold out my hand to her.

I can’t remember what happened after that, but I knew that I must have continued to see her.

Maybe she is even the girl that I’ve been dreaming about for the last ten years.  I don’t know for sure though, because in my dreams, I never see her face.

“I do remember.  It’s you.”

“It is?” she whispers.

I want to find out more about what happened to us after that.  “I hope, to get to know you again.  If you are open to it.  There is a fog around you that I would like to clear away.”

I remember something else.  I know that my two missing years were pretty chaotic.  I remember a wish once, that me and, I think this girl, would be walking down the street once, like normal people, and I would introduce myself.

“Hi,” I say.  “I’m Daniel.”

“Hi,” she replies.  “I’m June.”

I hold out my hand and shake hers.

“I need to go back to my hotel room,” I say.  “But, I’ll see you at Tess’s tonight, yeah?”

She smiles.  “Yeah.  I’ll see you at Tess’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has to be my favorite chapter so far. I hope you like it as much as I liked writing it.


	10. Happy Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June's 27th birthday party.

**June**

I’m giddy as I take the train back to my apartment.  Day, well, Daniel, is going to be at my birthday party tonight!

I look through my closet and grab the outfit that I had already planned to wear for tonight: a blue, short-sleeved blouse and a pair of nice jeans.  I think of the ruby necklace sitting in my jewelry box, and for a second, think about wearing something else so I can wear Day’s necklace along with it.  I dismiss that thought after realizing that I would be painfully overdressed; besides, I’ll be walking home afterwards, and although Ruby sector is fairly safe, I don’t really want to attract any trouble from potential thieves.

I’m the first guest to arrive.  Tess gives me a hug when she opens the door.

“I’m so glad so see you June!” she says.  A mischievous grin lights up her face.  “I hope you don’t mind, but I invited a couple of old friends to join us tonight.”

I smile back at her.  “Yeah, I know.  I ran into them while I was going to the train station.”

“Well, the steaks are cooking, so just make yourself at home.”  Tess heads back to the kitchen.  I sit down on her couch.

The door rings four minutes and thirty-five seconds later.  “I’ll get that!” Tess exclaims.

Daniel and Eden are standing at the door when she answers it.  “Good to see you again, cousin!” she says, giving Daniel a hug.  “Wow, you look different!” she says as she hugs Eden.

“I was twelve last time we saw each other,” Eden says.  “Of course I’m going to look different.”

“Let me introduce you two to my friend, June.”  Tess directs their attention towards me.  Eden smirks; I wave at them.  “June, these are my friends, Daniel and Eden.  They just arrived here from Antarctica.”

“Antarctica, huh?” I say, feigning surprise.  “What are you two doing all the way out here?”

“We lived here a long time ago,” Eden replies.  “I have the opportunity to take an engineering job out here, so I decided to go for it.  I think my brother’s been homesick ever since we left.”  He pokes his brother playfully in the ribs.

“We couldn’t pass up on you going to the best engineering school in the world though,” Daniel commented.

“Dinner will be done soon,” Tess says.  She sits down on the love seat.

Eden sits down on the opposite end of the couch that I’m sitting on.

Pascao comes in from the kitchen.  “Hi, Eden, it’s nice to see you again.”  He shakes Eden’s hand.  “We’ve met before, but it was a long time ago.  I’m Pascao,” he says to Daniel.

Daniel shakes his hand.  “It’s nice to meet you.”

Pascao sits next to Tess, leaving the only open seat in the room in the middle of the couch.  _They’re doing this on purpose_ , I think to myself.  Daniel sits down, looks over at me, and smiles.

I turn to Daniel and Eden.  “So, how did you guys like Antarctica?  I’ve been there a couple of times on business.”

“Oh really?” Daniel asks, surprised.  “That’s a long way to travel.  You must have a really important job.”

“I’m currently the commander of all of the squadrons in California.”

“Wow!”  Daniel studies me for a second.  He looks puzzled.  “You can’t be any older than I am.  That’s pretty amazing.”

“Actually, today is my twenty-seventh birthday.”

“Well, happy birthday then,” Daniel replies.  “If I had known this was a birthday party, I would have gotten you a present.  I’m twenty-seven too.”

I find myself staring at him a little longer than what would probably be considered to be polite.  I can’t help it though; those beautiful blue oceans, one slightly blemished, are drawing me in again.

He’s looking back though, so he must not think that I’m being that rude.

“So, Eden is taking an engineering job; what are you going to be doing?”

Daniel shrugs.  “I worked in intelligence when I was in Antarctica, so maybe I can get something like that here.  I guess I was some hero to the Republic about ten years ago,” Daniel rolls his eyes, “so now the Republic sends me money every month; I guess I wouldn’t have to work, but that would be boring, yeah?”

“Maybe I can put in a good word for you over in intelligence here.  We can always use another war hero to help us capture the bad guys.”

“That would be great.”

Daniel shakes his head.  “It’s funny… I’m evidently this hero and everything, but I ended up getting amnesia, and I can’t remember any of it.  I mean, one day I’m the Republic’s most wanted criminal, and then the next thing I know, I’m waking up in a hospital bed and now the Republic loves me.”

“That must be tough.”

Daniel shrugs.  “I suppose that there are some good things about having amnesia.  I probably went through a lot of pain and hard times, but since I can’t remember it, it’s almost like it never happened.  But then, there’s a lot of bad to not being able to remember things either.”  He frowns.  “Suffering causes growth.  If I don’t remember what happened to me, does that mean that I can’t become a better person out of it?  And then, there are pieces of my life that are missing, and I know they’re important, but I can’t remember what they are.”

“I’m sure that, even though you don’t remember it, you became a better person anyway.”

“Maybe.”  Daniel looks at me intently for a moment.  He leans in a bit.  “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this,” he says, lowering his voice, “well, I’m sure someone has, but, you’re very attractive.”

I can’t help but smile, because I’m almost sure that he said something almost exactly like that to me the first time we met.  “Well,” I reply quietly, “I could say the same thing about you.”

“Dinner’s ready!” Pascao is coming out of the kitchen.  I had been so intent on listening to Daniel, that I hadn’t been paying much attention to what was going on around me.

We all get up and walk over to Tess’s kitchen table, which is round.  Tess and Pascao sit next to each other, and Eden sits next to Pascao.  Daniel sits next to Eden, and I sit down to the left of Daniel.

“So Eden, what kind of engineering work will you be doing here?” Tess asks.

“Well, I have to get the job first,” Eden replies.

“You’ll get it,” Daniel says.  “Once they found out that you were interested in relocating, they practically begged you to come.”

“At any rate, I would be working for the Republic.  I did some biomechanical engineering in Antarctica, developing an improved leg.  If they need me to work on that type of project, then I’d be happy to help; however, I’ve also heard that the Republic has been having some supply problems lately.  They’ve been experimenting with floating farmland in order to produce more food, as well as a new generation of 3-D printers that can extract certain elements out of the air.  That could help with all sorts of logistics problems.”

We are putting food onto our plates.  I grab a biscuit and butter my bread.

“Could you pass the mashed potatoes, sweetheart?” Daniel says to me.

For a brief instance, Eden gives Daniel a puzzled look.  If it weren’t for that, I would have thought nothing of Daniel’s use of “sweetheart” in his language.  He often used that term with people before.  Maybe it was a word that he hadn’t used a lot in Antarctica.

I pass the mashed potatoes to him.

“Imagine if, on the battlefield, we could print new uniforms and carbon-fiber guns, using mostly the carbon that was extracted from the _air_.  You’d need to bring a lot fewer materials with you.  That would give us a huge advantage, yeah?”

“Amazing,” Pascao replies.

“Of course, that’s a technology we wouldn’t really want to get out of this country.  We’re at peace now, fortunately, but if we ever did go to war again, we wouldn’t want the other guys to have it.”

“It’s good to have you two back here in the Republic,” Tess says.  “Have you decided on where you’re going to live?”

“We’re probably going to find a place here in Ruby,” Daniel says.  He laughs.  “Could you have ever imagined, when we first met, that we would be living in a gem sector?”

Tess shakes her head.  “If you would have told me, I would have thought you were cracked.”

Dinner was very tasty, and it was great to catch up on what Daniel had been doing.  He told me about life in Antarctica, and I told him about my job, and how life has improved in the Republic since the war ended.

After we all finish eating, Tess goes to the kitchen and returns with a chocolate cake.

“Happy birthday, June!” she says, placing the cake in front of me.  Everybody sings “Happy Birthday” to me, and Tess lights the candles.

“You have to make a wish!” Pascao says.

I can only think of one thing to wish for: that when I eventually end up telling Day what happened, that he won’t hold too much of a grudge against me.

 

After we eat our cake, Tess brings out a card game that she calls “Phase 10” where you play several hands, or phases, with different objectives in each phase, like get seven cards of the same color, or get a bunch of cards in numerical order.  You can’t move on to the next phase until you complete the objective of the current phase that you are on, but if someone puts down all of their cards before you complete a phase, you have to try the phase again.

As I play the game, I find out that my ability to read people comes in handy.  At the end of every turn, you have to discard a card, and I find that it’s pretty easy to figure out what kinds of cards Tess needs, and avoid giving them to her.

The game also has skip cards, where you get to pick a player to skip for the upcoming round.  I notice that Daniel never chooses to skip me, unless I only have one card in my hand.  I do the same for him though.

I end up winning the game, with Daniel and Eden right behind me.  I know that Daniel is good at reading people too.

“I had a really good time tonight,” I say as I help put the cards away.  “We should do this more often.”

“Definitely,” Eden adds.  “We didn’t do much of this in Antarctica.”

“If not much of this means never,” Daniel adds, standing up from the table.

He looks over at me.  “So, uh, June,” he runs his paper-clipped hand through his white-blonde hair.  “I was wondering if, I could walk you back to your apartment.  I mean, I know that you’re probably a black belt in some form of martial arts or something, but, uh…”

“I’d love it if you did,” I say.  “Are you sure that you’ll be able to find your way back to your hotel though?”

“It won’t be a problem.  I know where it is.  Besides, I have the address on my tablet, if I forget.”  He takes a small gadget out of his pocket and waves it at me.

“Then I guess I’ll see you later, Daniel,” Eden says, giving his brother a mischievous look.  “Thanks for inviting us, Tess.”

“No problem.”

“Maybe we can have a party over at our place, when we get one,” Daniel adds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long! It often seems like, as soon as I finish what I want to get done in the day, it's either really late, or I'm super tired. I hope you like it!


	11. It's You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel takes June home after her birthday party.

**Daniel**

“I don’t live very far from here,” June says as we leave Tess’s apartment.

“That’s too bad,” I say.  “It means there’s less time I get to spend with you.”

I grin at her; she smiles back at me.  “I’m sure that we’ll see each other again.”

“Soon, I hope.  I had a really good time this evening.”

We get to the elevator.  There’s actually electricity to the building, and we don’t have to use the stairs like I used to, back when I lived in Los Angeles ten years ago.

I laugh.  “When I used to live here – well, not here, I mostly lived in Lake and then on the streets – a lot of the time we didn’t have electricity in the buildings.  Even nice places like this.  We’d have to take the stairs; although sometimes I’d just climb the sides of a building for fun.”

“Yeah, I know,” June replies.  “When I was at the academy, I used to climb the sides of buildings as well.  They didn’t really like that.  I was always getting into trouble.  I remember thinking, after I had gotten a suspension for climbing fourteen floors off campus, that if Day could climb five stories in less than eight seconds, then I’d have to be better than that, you know?”

I stop; I give her a confused look.  “How did you know that I was Day?  I never told you that.”

June rolls her eyes at me.  “It’s not that hard to figure out.  You’re a war hero named Daniel, whatever you did was important enough for the Republic to give you money for the rest of your life, and you were at one point the Republic’s most wanted criminal.  There’s only one person that could fit that description: Daniel Altan Wing, formerly known as Day.”

“Impressive,” I remark.  “You must have a good memory.”

June shrugs.  “I guess it’s pretty good.  I was one of only two people to ever get a perfect score on the trials.”

We exit the building.  The air is warm, and it’s dark all around us, except for the JumboTrons and the light from them reflecting off the pavement.  “I guess you would have to be pretty smart then.”  I’m confused though.  “I thought that there was only one person to get a perfect trial score.”

“That’s what they want people to think.  You know that the Republic used to be corrupt.  “They were all happy about me getting the perfect score because my parents had money and were important to the government.  They didn’t really publish the other kid’s scores since he was from the slums.  They weren’t exactly thrilled.”

“Wow, that’s strange.”

“Isn’t it?”  June looks thoughtful for a second.  “So, do you still climb up buildings?”

I shake my head.  “In Antarctica, some of the buildings are three hundred stories tall.  Not even _I’m_ that cracked to climb them.”  I laugh.  “They have a gym where I work though, with a climbing wall.  I usually spend some time climbing that every week.  Sometimes they get upset because I usually just start climbing without bothering to hook up to their ‘safety equipment’.”

“I haven’t had the chance to climb too many buildings lately either.  Too busy with work.  Plus, a lot of times I used to do things like climb buildings for attention.  When I was at the academy, everybody was older than I was.  It was really hard to make any real friends, so I tried to impress them instead.  I guess I don’t have to perform stunts like that any more.  I use the climbing wall at my gym as well.”

“Maybe we can go climbing together sometime.”

We walk silently past a few buildings.  I reach over and grab her hand; she smiles back at me.  My heart leaps in my chest.  I’m not sure who this girl is, but she’s amazing.  I’m sure that I’ve met her before, but I still haven’t figured out where.

We get to her building too soon.

“Well, this is where I live,” June says after we reach her apartment.  She puts her key in the lock.  “If you want, I can put my number in your tablet.”

“I’d like that.” I take my tablet out of my pocket, and she types a few numbers in.  I put my tablet back in my pocket and grin at her.

June winks at me.  “Thanks for protecting me from all those bad guys that might be lurking out there.”

“And what makes you think that I’m not a bad guy,” I say, teasingly.  “I’m too drop-dead gorgeous to be one?”  I flutter my eyes at her.

“No, because you’re _way_ too modest to be evil.”  She laughs.  “You’re a friend of Tess’s.  She’s a good judge of character.”

“Usually.”  I don’t know why I said that.  She _is_ a good judge of character.  Somewhere, in the back of my mind, my brain is telling me that her track record hasn’t always been perfect.

I step closer to June.  “Well, I know if I _was_ a bad guy, I wouldn’t settle on attacking just any seemingly helpless trot that I saw walking by,” I say quietly.  “I could only settle for the best looking girl in the Republic.”

I put my hand on her cheek and kiss her, softly.  I’m not quite sure how she’ll react, but happily, she kisses me back.  There’s something familiar to her kiss; I don’t know what it is, but I want more.  I put my other hand on her waist and push her against the wall, kissing her more urgently.

I have to stop.  Supposedly, I just met this girl.  I pull away.  No, I _didn’t_ just meet this girl.  We’ve known each other before.  We were more than just acquaintances.

A light goes off in my head.  My mouth is agape.  “I’ve kissed you before, haven’t I?”

She nods.  “Yes.”

I suddenly realize something else.  She’s the one that I’ve been – dreaming about for the last ten years.  In my dreams, I’ve never seen her face, but the rest of her is exactly the same.  “It’s you,” I say, my voice full of wonder.

“Who?”

“I’ve been dreaming about you for the last ten years.”  I don’t know if my dreams are memories, or if they’re prophecies though.  There’s only one way to find out.  “Did we ever – ?” _no, dummy, you can’t ask someone that you just met if you’ve slept with her!  Ask something else!_   “Do you – have a scar on your side?”

She gives me a puzzled look; then, she lifts up the side of her shirt, just above her hip; just enough for me to see that familiar scar in my dreams.

I reach out and caress her scar.  It is a little bit more faded than dream-June’s scar, but otherwise, it is exactly the same.  “My dreams of you – they’re memories.”

I can hardly breathe.  I’ve been trying to find this girl for the past ten years.  I didn’t even know that she was real, until now; but now, she’s standing right in front of me.

“I have so many questions,” I say.  “I’m missing a huge portion of my life, and you’re the only person who can bring it back to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Can I see you again?  Soon?  I have to ask you about some things.  So many things happened to me during the years I had amnesia, and you’re the only person who can answer them for me.”

“Uh, sure.”  She sighs.  She seems hesitant, though I don’t know why.  “I’m not working tomorrow.  Are you free?”

“Yeah.  Should I stop by around lunchtime?”

She nods.  “That would work.”

“I’ll see you then.”  I kiss her on the forehead.  “Good night.”

“Good night.”

I watch her turn and go into her apartment.  I start walking back to the hotel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you think!


	12. It's A Complicated Emotion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel finds out about his past from June.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> +10 virtual Antarctican points (good only in this fanfiction timeline) to the first person to find the Disney near quote (I changed about two words) in this chapter and leave a comment.
> 
> It's a long chapter! The characters had a lot to say to each other.

**June**

I’m dreading my lunch date with Daniel today.

He remembers things.  I don’t know how much he remembers, or what he remembers, but evidently he remembers kissing me.  He remembers enough to know that I have a scar.  He remembers enough to know that there’s a lot that he doesn’t know.

I owe him the truth though.  I’m going to have to tell him the truth about my responsibility in the deaths of his mother and brother.  It could throw a huge bucket of water on our quickly rekindling relationship, but I owe him the truth.  He’s been searching for it for ten years.

Shortly after noon, my doorbell rings.  Daniel is at the door, dressed quite nicely in a button-up shirt and black pants.  “Hey,” he says.

“Hi.”

He holds out a small velvet box.  “I stopped and got you this on the way here.  It’s a belated birthday present.”

I take the box and open it.  Inside is a pair of gorgeous diamond and ruby stud earrings set in gold.  Each earring has a small diamond in the center, surrounded by six rubies, surrounded by another twelve small diamonds.  They will match the ruby and diamond necklace that he gave me, years ago, perfectly.

“Since your birthstone is a ruby, I thought that these would be nice.”

“Daniel, this is too much,” I say.  “I can’t take these.  You barely know me.”  I hold the box back out to him.

“No, you have to take them,” he replies, pushing the earrings back in my direction.  “Trust me, they weren’t that much.  I get plenty of money from the Republic, and I work, and I don’t have many expenses.  Give me the honor of spending a little of it on a pretty girl.”

I know that these ruby earrings were not cheap, but the expression on his face tells me that he really didn’t break the bank to buy them for me.  I don’t know what kind of money he has, but evidently, he’s no longer a broke street kid that would have to break into a hospital to get plague medicine.

I feel heat rising to my cheeks.  “You really shouldn’t have spent this much on me, but thank you.”

He grins back at me.

“I’m making some sandwiches for lunch.  What would you like?”

He follows me into the kitchen.  “Do you have ham and turkey?”

“Yes.”  I take some meat out of the refrigerator.

He takes some bread out of the package that’s sitting on the counter.  “You don’t have to do that,” I say.

He rolls his eyes at me.  “What you might not know about me, is that I’m very handy around the kitchen.”  He smiles at me, taking some butter out of the refrigerator.  “I know that you wouldn’t know it by looking at him now, but when Eden and I moved to Antarctica, he was nearly blind.  When we were living in the Republic, we had a caretaker, but when we left, I was seventeen, and I guess they figured that I could take care of him.  So, I had to learn how to cook.  Sandwiches are easy.”

I watch him as he butters his bread.  “No kidding?” I say.

“I’ve been teaching Eden to cook too, now that he can see better.  I suppose that we could go to restaurants every night, but why?”  He shrugs.

After we finish making our sandwiches, we sit down at the dining room table.  “Would you like anything to drink?” I ask.  “Soda, tea?”

“I’ll have a soda.”

I go to the kitchen and get a glass of iced tea for me, and a clear soda for Daniel.  “I hope this kind is okay,” I remark.

“It’s fine.”

We eat our lunch in silence for a few minutes.  I’m reluctant to get this conversation started, because I know that he won’t be happy with what I have to say.

“So…” I begin, “what do you remember?”

“Well, what I remember is pretty much only through dreams.  I have this one dream where my leg is all torn up, and we’re in a bathroom somewhere, and I’m kissing you, and I tell you that I love you.  So… I must have loved you at one point.

“I have another dream where you’re hurt.  I don’t know how you got hurt, but I’m changing your bandage.  It must be the injury that gave you your scar.”

“I was hurt in a Skiz fight,” I say.  “That’s how we met.  Tess was originally picked to fight, but I stepped in, and then I was stabbed.  I guess you felt like you owed me some help, since I helped Tess.”

“That makes sense.  I was very protective of Tess.”

“Yes.  I remember that you used to give her your jacket at night as a pillow.”

Daniel gives me an odd look.  “Wait, I’m confused,” he says.  “You were this rich kid with a trial score of 1500.  So what were you doing getting into Skiz fights and spending enough time with me and Tess to know about that?”

I sigh.  He deserves to know, but I dread telling him.

My eyes begin to fill with tears.

He reaches out and touches my cheek.  “Whatever it is, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.”

“What happened?  Why did we break up?”

He has scooted his chair next to mine, and he wraps his arms around me.  “What’s wrong?”

“We never did break up,” I say, “But, it’s because I love you that I didn’t want to be with you.”

“What?  June, that makes no sense.”

“It’s a… complicated emotion.”

“So tell me, what makes it so complicated?”

“I guess I should start from the beginning.”  I sit back and look at him for a moment.  I reach for his hands.  “Your brother got the plague, and you broke into the hospital in order to get a cure.”

“I don’t remember that, but my brother told me about it before.”

“My brother was on patrol that night.  When you escaped, you threw a knife at him.”

He looks down, embarrassed.  “Sorry about that.”

“That’s okay.”  I shake my head.  “Anyway, luck was not on Metias’s – that’s my brother – side that night.  He knew some things that he shouldn’t have, and his friend, who was _very_ loyal to the government, was ordered to murder him.  He took your knife, which you had thrown at his shoulder, and stabbed him in the heart.”

He squeezes my hand.  “I’m so sorry.  No wonder you don’t want to tell me about this.”

“Oh no, it gets worse.”

Neither of us say anything for a few moments.  He gives me a quick hug, rubbing my back for a moment in an attempt to comfort me.  _No, I’m not the one that’s going to need comforting_ , I think.

“Anyway, I was told that you killed my brother.  Of course, I didn’t know _you_ , or even know what you looked like, but the fingerprints told everybody that Day was the killer.  That’s when I go under cover and find you in the slums with Tess after that Skiz fight.

“You and Tess help fix me up.  I spend a couple of days with you, and I find out that I really like you.  You seem to like me as well.  It isn’t until after you – kiss me – for the first time, that I figure out who you are.

“Meanwhile, I had already figured out that your brother has the plague.  I call my supervisors, and we were going to capture you when you came to visit your family.

“Daniel, I didn’t want them to hurt your family.”

He looks at me with sadness in his eyes.  _This is what I was afraid of._   We’ll never be able to have a normal relationship, I fear.  His dream of us one day meeting like normal people, it will never happen.

“I’m sorry.  If it wasn’t for me, your mom and brother would be alive today.”

“What are you talking about?  I saw them get killed.  I remember that.  A man shot my mother, not you; and my brother was killed by a firing squad.”

“If we had never met – ”

“Did you order my mom to be killed?”

“Well, no…”

His expression softens.  “Then don’t beat yourself up about it.  You didn’t do it.  If I thought that you had killed _my_ brother, I probably would have done the same thing.”

I’m silent for a moment.  I hadn’t ever thought about it that way.

“So then what happened?  You said that you thought that you were responsible for killing both my mother, which I know that you didn’t, and my brother.  Why do you think that you were responsible for my brother’s death?”

“They captured you, and Eden, and John.  They were using John against you.  Well, I guess that I did too, for a while.”  I take a deep breath.  “Anyway, you were sentenced to death.  I interrogated you, and you confessed to doing a lot of things, but you were adamant that you didn’t kill my brother.

“You also told me things that I had never heard before.  I had always been told that kids that fail the trial were sent to labor camps, but it turns out that they kill them instead.”

“Yeah, that was wonderful, waking up in the hospital morgue…”

“I didn’t believe you at first, but you were so insistent.  I decided to find out the truth for myself.  It turns out, you were right.  You didn’t kill my brother.  That was when I decided that I had to get you out of there.

“I paid the Patriots to help cause a disturbance.  Unfortunately, a couple people started to suspect what was going on, and things didn’t work out the way I had hoped that they would.  I tried to rescue both you and your brother, but when your brother realized that we wouldn’t all be able to escape alive, he sacrificed himself.  There was nothing I could do.”

Daniel put his hands on the sides of my head and made me look at him.  “So, let me get this straight.  I was supposed to be killed, you tried to rescue both me and John, things went wrong, and John volunteered to take my place.”

I nod.

“And you blame yourself?”

I look down.  “I’m so sorry.”

“June, look at me.”  He puts his hand on my shoulder.

I look at him.  He doesn’t look angry or sad, like I would expect him too.

“June, you need to forgive yourself.”

“Huh?”

He gives me a very serious look.  “Forgive yourself.  You’ve been beating yourself up about this for nearly twelve years.  You were fifteen.  Your brother died, and you thought I did it.  How were you supposed to act?”

I shrug.

“It’s okay.”

I feel relief, like an elephant has been lifted off of my shoulders.  I hug Daniel, and squeeze tightly.  We just sit like that for a minute.

After a while, he lets go.  “Is there anything else that’s been eating you alive for the last ten years?”

“No.”

“Good.  Now, would you be able to tell me how I got this knee?  I’ve wondered about that for years.  One day, my knee was all messed up, injured from when the Republic operated on me after I failed my test, and then the next day, I wake up from my coma with this.”  He points at his artificial knee.

“Yes.  The Patriots got it for you.”

“The Patriots?”

“After I saved you from the firing squad, we went to Las Vegas.  Your knee was severely infected, and you were probably going to die without medical help.  We agreed to help them assassinate Anden, the new Elector Primo, in exchange for your new knee.”

Daniel scratches his head.  “I guess we didn’t keep to that deal, did we?”

“No.”  I smile at him.  “You remember kissing me in the bathroom with your busted knee, right?”

Daniel smiles.  “Yes.”

“Well, that was in Las Vegas, right before they fixed you up.  I had to help you – get clean – because you couldn’t stand on your own.”  I feel my face turn pink at the thought.

He laughs.  “You’re blushing.  It’s cute.”  He kisses me on the cheek.

“I didn’t look at anything.  I promise.”

“You think I’m worried about that?  _I_ probably would have looked, if our situations had been reversed.”

“Daniel!”  I pretend to be shocked.

He shrugs.  “I’m just being honest.  I’m a guy, right?  And _you’re_ a beautiful girl.”

I roll my eyes.

“Besides, I’ve had other dreams about you, and unless I have some dreams about you that were memories, and some that weren’t, then you _have_ seen more, just on another day; and so have I.”

I’m sure that I’m bright red at this point.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly.  “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“No, don’t be.  I just didn’t realize that you remembered all of that.”

“I didn’t either, until yesterday.  I thought they were just… dreams.”

I lean towards him.  “Would you like to know a secret?”

“Sure.”

“I told you yesterday that there were two people that received a perfect trial score.  I was one of them, of course, but you had the other perfect score.”

“You lie!  They told me that I failed!”

I shake my head.  “No, they lied to you.  When you were in jail, I looked up your files.  Your official score was lower than I had ever seen in my life.  It didn’t make sense.  You were articulate and athletic, and it just didn’t seem possible.  So I did some digging, and discovered that your score was perfect.  I guess they must have thought that you were a threat.  It also explains why they cut up your knee and extracted something from your eye.”

Daniel furrowed his eyebrows.  “Wow.”

He looked at the floor for a moment, lost in thought.  “Thank you for telling me all this.”

I smile.  “I’m glad that you’re not upset.  It’s a lot to absorb.”

“I have another question.  Do you know where I got this?”  He holds up his hand with the paper-clip ring.  “I was wearing it when I woke up from my coma.  Somehow, I figured that it must have been important.  That’s why I never took it off.”

“I made it for you.”

He beams at me.  “Good.”

“You made one for me too,” I add.  “When we went to the Colonies together, I had to take it apart in order to escape a pair of handcuffs that they put me into.”

Daniel gets a confused look on his face.  “Wait.  We went to the Colonies together?”

“Yes.”

“Your last name is Iparis then.”  It’s a statement, not a question.

“Yes.”

He laughs.  “When I first got to Antarctica, I was trying to figure out what had happened.  So I went to the Internet.  I read a ton of newspaper articles about myself.  Some of them said what happened, others were really silly… evidently I have several children that I have no goddy clue about, yeah?”

“What?”

“Tabloid stuff.  Brought to you by the same people that say that some guy can fry bacon on his head, Lincoln was a man (and evidently I dated her, too) and that there was a horse born with a human head.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, while I was looking at these articles, I saw a small article about how I had taken someone named June Iparis, who had the plague, to a hospital in the Colonies.  It said that we had been seeing each other for a while.  I thought it was another goddy tabloid article, because it said that we took a plane and flew back into the Republic together.”  He shrugs.  “I don’t know how to fly a plane.”

I frown, thinking about how Kaede had died on that flight.  “That wasn’t a tabloid article.  We had a friend who flew the plane for us.  She didn’t make it.”

“Oh.”  Just another bad thing that happened during this time period.

I put my hand on his knee.  “Same girl who gave me my scar.  Turns out that there was more to her than just being a Skiz fighter.”

“It seems that I have more questions than ever.  I hope that we can stay friends.  It seems like I’m going to keep asking you questions forever though.”

I laugh.

“I guess the biggest question though, is, what happened?  If we didn’t break up, and you didn’t want to be with me because you loved me, which I don’t get, then did you just leave me one day?  Did I leave you?”

I close my eyes for a moment.  “When you were in that coma, I visited you every day.  That’s when I really got to know Tess and Pascao, although I had seen them around before, obviously.  We met Pascao when we were with the Patriots, by the way.  Anyway, when you woke up, you didn’t remember me.

“I came to visit you in your hospital room, and you had absolutely no recognition of me.  You acted as if I was a stranger.  I felt that it was my only chance to do the kind thing, which was to set you free.

“Before you went into the coma, you were so conflicted.  You loved me.  The night that we spent together, you begged me to tell you that I didn’t love you, but I couldn’t, because it wasn’t true; I do love you.  It hurt you, because every time you looked at me, I reminded you of what you had lost.

“So I let you go.” **  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of notes about things in this chapter:
> 
> The earrings that Daniel bought June would cost about $500 in the store (using 2016 US dollars, not Republican notes. I haven't really bothered to figure out what the conversion rate would be). On sale. If you're interested in seeing a picture of what they actually look like (yes, I went window shopping for jewelry, and they're a real pair of earrings), then just let me know and I'll tweet it and post a link to the picture here.
> 
> So now you may be wondering, why I had Daniel buy June a $500 pair of earrings, then act like he went to Wal-Mart and picked up something small for $10. If you haven't done the math, and I wouldn't really expect you to, then it wouldn't make sense.
> 
> Daniel has about a million dollars in his bank account. That's why spending $500 on a pair of earrings for a birthday present for a girl that he's been dreaming about for 10 years is no big deal. Using similar math, I figure that Eden has about $250k saved, by the way.
> 
> Here's the nerdy math part about how I came to this conclusion, in case you're interested:
> 
> The Republic has been giving Daniel money every month, for the last 10 years. Plus, with the exception of perhaps a couple of months after he moved to Antarctica, he's had a job. Assuming that the Republic has been giving him about $50k a year, and he's had an average salary of $50k a year at his job (it was probably less at the beginning, but more later on). So he's been getting about $100k a year, for 10 years. Eden spent his first 3 years on a scholarship at the University, which paid for his share of living expenses. He spent his last 7 years working... I estimate that as a gifted engineer, he probably averaged about $50k a year as well, for his working years.
> 
> They've been sharing a 1 bedroom apartment for the last 10 years. They don't have many expenses. They grew up in poverty, so they don't actually have a lot of wants. If you knew your Depression-era grandparents or great-grandparents, you might know what I'm talking about.
> 
> For the two of them to live, I estimate that it would take $50k, tops, to support them both, so $25k each. Which would allow Daniel to put $75k away every year into a bank account (for 10 years), and Eden to save $25k every year for 7 years. At least. Add in interest every year, and he has approximately a million dollars in his bank account. If he really wants to buy something, $500 is not a lot to spend. He gets more than that in interest every month.
> 
> This detail really doesn't make a huge difference in this story, as, for the most part, he's going to continue to spend his money fairly modestly (as will Eden), but there may be a time or two in the future of this story where he wants to buy something really nice, and he spends a LOT of money on it, and if you don't realize that the Wing boys actually have quite a lot of money in savings and typically save a lot more than they earn, then it might seem unrealistic.


	13. Moving In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eden and Day move into their new apartment.

**Daniel**

Eden is already home after I get back from June’s.

“How was your interview?” I ask.

“It was great!” he replies.  “I got the job.”

“I knew you would.”

Eden grins at me.  “So how did your date with June go?”

“It wasn’t a date.  We just talked.”

“Mmm hmmm.”

“It was nice though.  She was able to tell me a lot of what happened.  Well, the short version, anyway.  We had a crazy couple of years.  Too bad I don’t remember much of it.”

“I thought you said that you didn’t remember anything.”

We had talked about the war before.  Eden told me about his experience as a medical prisoner.  Although I could sympathize with him, having been subject to medical experimentation after I thought I had failed the trial, I couldn’t tell him anything about my experience, because I didn’t remember any of it.  Or at least, I thought that I didn’t.

“I thought that I didn’t remember anything either,” I reply.  “That is, until yesterday.  Evidently, some dreams that I have sometimes are actually memories.”

“You didn’t tell me you had nightmares.”

I laugh quietly.  “No, I don’t have nightmares.  I don’t dream about things like John or mom dying, even though I remember that.  My dreams are usually some of the nicer things that happened during that time… like kissing June; but in my dreams, I couldn’t see exactly who she was, and I didn’t know that they were actual memories.”

“I guess you don’t need to tell me what you remember, then.”  Eden gets a disgusted look on his face.

“What, you don’t want to hear about me and June?” I ask, pretending shock.

“Not particularly.”

“Good, because I don’t really want to tell you about it either.”

“Are you doing anything tomorrow?” Eden asks.  “Because I’d like to find a place to live before I start my job.”

“Nope.  Just going house-hunting with my little brother.”

 

The doorbell rings.  Eden and I found a two-bedroom apartment in Ruby that we liked.  It’s fairly close to where both Tess and June live.

Tess and Pascao are already here, helping to unpack a box of dishes.

“It must be June,” I say.  “I’ll get it.”

I open the door to see June standing at the entrance.  She looks stunning in a black shirt and khaki pants.  I notice that she’s also wearing the ruby earrings that I gave her.

“Come in,” I tell her.  “You look gorgeous today, sweetheart.”

She steps in and I close the door behind her.  I put my hands on her waist.  “I like your earrings,” I say.

“Thanks!  My boyfriend gave them to me.”

I feel my cheeks turn pink at her referring to me as her boyfriend.  “So… does your boyfriend know that you’re here today?”

She nods.

Tess looks over at us.  She must see June’s earrings sparkle from the sunlight streaming in from the window.  “June, you never told me that you had a boyfriend; especially one that liked you enough to buy you earrings like that!  If I had known, I never would have invited – ”

I give her an odd look.  A split-second later, Tess figures out that June was talking about me, and gets an embarrassed look on her face.

I turn back to June.  “He must be a very nice guy,” I say.  “Is your boyfriend as good-looking as I am?”

“Yes.  He’s just as stunning as you are, in every way.”  I wrap my arms around her waist, and she presses her forehead against mine.  “Do you want to see something else my boyfriend gave me?”  I nod.  She takes out a ruby and diamond necklace that she had hidden underneath her shirt.

“That’s really pretty,” I tell her.

“I don’t think that he remembers giving it to me though.  Poor guy got amnesia afterwards.”

I kiss her forehead.  “Must be tough.  They look really good with the earrings though, yeah?”

“Yeah, they do.”

I whisper into her ear quietly enough that nobody else in the room would be able to hear. “Do you think your boyfriend would mind if you modeled them for me, wearing only your jewelry?”

“I don’t think that _he_ would mind that.  He seems to be into that sort of thing.”

“Would you mind?”

“Daniel!”  She hits me playfully on the shoulder.

“I wasn’t expecting you to say yes.”  I grin at her.  “It doesn’t hurt to ask though, right?”

“Would you two get a room?”  Pascao says.

“Ha. Ha.  This is my house!  If I want to kiss a pretty girl here, I can.”  I look over at Pascao.  “Tell me that you wouldn’t feel the same way that I do, if somehow, Tess went missing for ten years, and then you finally found her.”

He shrugs.  “You’re probably right.”

I grab June’s hand.  “Come on, let’s go unpack some boxes.”

I took her to the hall in front of the linen closet.  I open the box sitting in front of it and start taking out towels.

“We got rid of a lot of the big stuff before coming over here,” I tell June.  “It cost almost as much to ship a couch, for example, then it would be to just buy another one once we got here.  So we pretty much just boxed up our clothes and little things like that.  It’ll make unpacking everything go a lot quicker.”

“So all your furniture is new?” she asks me.

“Gotta love the internet,” I say.  “We had trucks coming in here all day yesterday.”  I laugh.  “We were able to order everything online.”

“That’s cool.”  We walk into my bedroom, where I have to set up my bed.  “You know what we should do?”

“What?” I ask.

“We should go rock climbing.”

“Good idea.  At your gym?”  I look at the box that is supposedly my bed.  I scratch my head.  “Have you ever seen a bed come in a box?”

June laughs.  “I don’t think so.  Maybe the directions are inside the box.”  She starts opening the box.  “I wasn’t thinking about going rock climbing at my gym.  There’s a place north of here that we can go to.  I think that it’s called… Yosemite or something.  It’s supposed to be really pretty.  Although they do suggest that you actually use safety equipment in some of the places.”

“I’ll go whenever you’re up to it.”

“We’ll have to go some holiday weekend or something like that, since you’d need a couple of days to go.”  June takes a large piece of paper out of the box.  “Okay, the instructions say that we’re supposed to take the bottom part of the bed and lay it flat one the base, that you already set up.  Then we have to put the middle part inside the bed, and zip the top part on top of it.”

I shrug.  “That’s an interesting setup for a bed.  But these are supposed to be pretty nice.”

June and I take the bottom part of the bed and spread it out on the bed’s foundation.  “Have you ever been camping?  We’ll have to rent a car to get there.”

I shake my head.  “No, I’ve never been camping, but I lived on the streets for about five years.  That counts, right?”

“I think it does.  It’ll probably be better than living on the streets, because you get to have a tent and sleeping bag, plus we can buy food instead of stealing it.”

“Sounds like an adventure.  I’d love to go.”  I take the middle part of the bed out of the box, and we start setting that up.

Even though the bed was more complicated than anything that I’ve ever seen before, it wasn’t too hard to set up.  I didn’t even have to ask Eden to help us.  After plugging it in, I used a remote control to fill both sides of the bed up with air.

I flop down on the bed.  “Now, what’s the most comfortable?” I say, using the remote to adjust how hard the bed felt.

I look over at June.  She’s standing next to the bed, blushing.

I get up, walk over to her, and put my arms around her waist.  “You look cute when you blush,” I say.  She turns even redder.  “You don’t have to be embarrassed.  It’s a brand new bed.  Nobody’s even slept on it before.”  I kiss her neck.  “Besides, the last time I was with a girl I was in Ruby sector, about ten years ago…”

I kiss her again.  “I’ll finish setting up later.  Let’s go join our friends.  I think Tess wants a rematch on that card game you beat her at on your birthday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you liked this chapter. :-)
> 
> ~~ Does anybody know whether the gigantic body of water that takes up most of Central California has a name or not? ~ Okay, I found out the answer to that question (after combing through the entire set of books with as much attention to detail as June would, and taking detailed notes. While the lake is briefly mentioned on page 170 of Champion (at least the paperback version), it is not named in the series. :-)


	14. Road Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel and June leave for Yosemite.

**June**

I ring the doorbell at Daniel’s house.  It takes fifteen seconds for Daniel to open the door.

“Hello, Sweetheart,” he says as he answers the door.  He looks good in his collared shirt and khaki pants.

“Hey Daniel.  You ready to go?”

“I think so.  I’ve never actually been camping before.  I suppose if I forgot something, then it’ll just be more like living out on the streets.”

Daniel had a pile of stuff sitting next to the couch.  “Well, it looks like you remembered to get a sleeping bag and a tent,” I say.  “I got the food and the cooking supplies, so we can sleep and eat.”

“I brought my clothes too.”

“And I also have the climbing gear, so we should be all set.”

I look over at Eden, who is in the kitchen, washing the breakfast dishes.  “What are you doing this weekend?” I ask.

Eden looks over at me and smiles.  “I have a date.  Other than that, I’m just going to hang out for a while.”

“Evidently, he started working with Rilla on some project last week,” Daniel says.  “He hasn’t stopped talking about her since.”  He looks over his shoulder at his brother.  “But I’m happy for you.”

I pick up Daniel’s pillow and sleeping bag.  “Okay, let’s go.”

Daniel grabs a bag and the tent.  “Have a good time, Eden!” he calls out as he leaves the apartment.

I had parked the rental car in the alley next to the building.  We put the rest of the luggage in the back of the car.

“Have you ever driven before?” I ask.

“No.  I didn’t have an opportunity to learn when I was a kid, and I didn’t need to learn when I was in Antarctica.”

“I should drive until we get out of the city, then,” I say, hopping into the driver’s seat.  “It’s a long drive, so if you want to try, you can when we get out into the middle of nowhere.”

“Sounds like fun.”

I pull out into the street and start driving slowly through the city.  Outside of the military, not many people have cars.  Most people just walk everywhere, unless they have to go long distances where the trains don’t go.  Then people with money rent cars.

“It’s going to take almost all day to get there.  There used to be a more direct route to get to Yosemite, but after the flooding, Lake California filled up most of the central part of the state, and now you have to drive around.  Plus, the roads are pretty rough in places now, since not many people drive this way anymore.”

“How’d you find out about this place?”

“One of my coworkers suggested it after I mentioned that I was looking for a good climbing wall to take my boyfriend to.”  I turn to him and grin.  “I thought it would be fun.”

I drive through the hills north of Ruby, past the tall terraced buildings in this part of the city.  Los Angeles seems to stretch out forever.  As we get to the edges of the city, the buildings begin to get shorter and farther apart.  After what seems like a long time, we arrive at a barren stretch of desert.

I look over at Daniel, who seems to be taking in the scene around him.  “Do you want to try driving?” I ask.

He nods, and I pull over to the side of the road.  We switch seats.

“So here’s how these things work,” I explain.  “The pedal on the left is called the brake.  It slows the car down.  The pedal on your right is the gas.  It will cause the car to go.  You’ll want to go a little slower around corners around here, especially until you get used to driving.  You press this button here,” I point to a green button on the dashboard, “to start the car.  As long as one of us has the keys in the car, it will start.  Down here,” I point to the gear shift between us “you have controls that tell the car what direction to go in.  The P stands for park, R stands for reverse, N for neutral – then it just rolls wherever it wants to, and then D for drive.”

Daniel looks at me nervously.  “That’s a lot to take in all at once.”

“You have to learn somehow.”  I wink at him.  “You don’t have to drive far if you don’t like it.  I’ll help you out.  First, put your right foot on the brake.  That’s the left pedal.  Then you can press the green button.”

He does, and the car quietly purrs.

“Keep your foot on the brake, and put the car into drive.”  I watch him shift the car into drive.  “Now move your foot to the gas pedal and press slowly.”

The car starts to jerk forward.

I laugh.  “Make sure that you steer us back onto the road!”

Daniel turns the steering wheel too hard, propelling us to the other side of the road.  He corrects himself, a little bit too much, sending us well over to the other side of the road.  His next correction gets him back into the middle of our lane.  I’m glad that I haven’t seen another car on the road for nearly thirty minutes.  We’re not likely to run into anybody else while he picks this up.

“I think I got it now,” he says.

After going through a few turns at a lower speed, he quickly gets the hang of things.  His natural agility and reflexes makes this a lot easier for him than it would be for a lot of people.  Pretty soon, he’s driving through the empty desert almost as fast as I would be.

“This is fun!” Daniel exclaims.  “We should do this more often.”

“Maybe we can,” I say.  “We could get a car and go do this on weekends.”  I feel my face turn pink.  _Did I just suggest that we go buy a car together?_

Daniel, keeping his eyes on the road, laughs.  “Maybe.”  Good.  I don’t think that he realized what that sounded like.

At about lunchtime, I have Daniel pull over, and we sit on the side of the road while we eat sandwiches.  I look over at the mountains to our west.

“There’s a big lake past those mountains,” I say.  “Maybe we should go sometime.”

Daniel smiles back at me.  He sighs.  “Did we have this much fun back when we were teenagers?”

I shake my head.  “Not really.  I don’t think that anybody had much fun, ever.  Maybe some rich people, sometimes.  We were at war.”

Daniel quietly snorts.  “Of course they would be the only ones to enjoy themselves.  At least it’s not as bad as it used to be.”

I put my hand on his shoulder.  “It _is_ better.  We have you to thank for it.  It’s hard to see sometimes what life is like outside of your class, unless someone reminds you.  You helped me see what the people in the poorer sectors had to go through; you helped Anden see too.”  I stand up.  “We better get going.  I don’t really want to have to set up our camp in the dark.”

 

“June Lake!” Daniel says, pointing at a faded road sign that we were passing.  “We need to go there someday.”

I laugh.  “Maybe we should stop there on the way back for breakfast.  I don’t know how far it is from the road though.”

“Well, we won’t have to set up a tent when we get back to Los Angeles, yeah?  It doesn’t matter if we get back a little late.”

The sun was starting to hang low in the sky, but my tablet said that we were getting close.  We would have just enough time to set up the tent and get a fire started before it got too dark.

“I don’t think that I’ve seen anything like this before in my life,” Daniel says as we pull into a camping spot in what used to be called the Upper Pines Campground – or at least, that’s what the faded sign at the entrance said.  I saw a couple of columns of smoke from campfires as I drove around, but what looks like it used to be a pretty busy place for campers is now mostly abandoned.  “There are almost no people here.  What happened?”

I shrug.  “I don’t know.  Maybe people stopped living here when the infrastructure started to break down.  I send a patrol through this part of the state a couple of times a week, but since very few people live out here, they usually don’t have anything to report.  This part of the state doesn’t get any electricity, and there aren’t any grocery stores or anything out here anymore, so maybe that’s why nobody lives here.”

We pull the tent out of the car.  “I think that this thing is just supposed to pop up once you unroll it,” Daniel says.

I look on the ground for a flat place to put the tent.  “Let’s set it up right here,” I say, after finding a relatively flat spot.

Daniel takes the tent out of the box and out of the bag that it came in.  We lay it out along the ground, unfold it in a couple of places, and it automatically starts to set itself up.  All we had to do after that was snap a few poles in place and then pound some stakes into the ground to keep it from blowing away in case it got windy.

“That was easy, yeah?” Daniel says, admiring the tent.

“Yeah.  Let’s get the fire set up.”

Each of the campsites had an old, rusty fire pit where you could start a fire.  I went around gathering some grass and small sticks that we could use to help start the fire, while Daniel took a few pieces of firewood out of the back of the car.  Between his five years of living on the streets, and my survival classes, it wasn’t too difficult for us to get a fire started.  As the sun went down, the flames were already high enough to provide us with warmth and a little light.

 

After we ate our dinner, we watched the stars.  Daniel leaned his back against a stump, and I leaned up against him.  He draped his arm around my waist.  I couldn’t imagine any other place that I’d rather be at this moment.

“The stars are so beautiful,” Daniel says, looking up.  “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life before.”

“They took us up into the desert a couple of times while I was at Drake,” I say.  “Survival training and all.  It’s better with you though.”

I feel Daniel sigh.  “How did I get so lucky?” he asks quietly.  “When I was a teenager, I never thought that I’d live to see twenty.  On the streets, it felt like every new day was a gift.  Not only am I still alive, but I’m with somebody as wonderful as you.  I fell in love with you ten years ago; then after I get amnesia and come back, you’re not with anybody else.”

I think for a moment.  “Maybe it’s – because you’re willing to do the right thing, even when it hurts you.  Thomas asked me once – he’s the guy that killed my brother and your mom – why you, a criminal, were being celebrated as a hero, while he had obeyed all of the rules and was scheduled to be executed.  I told him that it was because you walked in the light, and he didn’t.

“Commander Jameson – she was a person that ordered the deaths of many innocent people, including my brother and your mom – once told me that I was going to become just like her one day.  If I hadn’t met you, maybe I would have.  My brother was a lot more like you.  He could see the worth in people even if they were less fortunate.  I wasn’t able to see any of that before I met you.”

“You can’t compare yourself that way to your brother,” Daniel says.  “He was older than you.  He had a lot longer than you to learn all of that.”

I shake my head.  “You already knew to think about others,” I say, “and you’re only six months and five days older than me.”

Daniel laughs.  “True, but I did spend five years, something months, and something days living on the streets.  That makes you grow up faster, I’m sure.”

I turn around and look at him suspiciously.  “Are you trying to make fun of me?”

“I could never make fun of you.”  He shakes his head.  “I’m absolutely amazed at how you can do that thing with dates.”

We sit there silently for a while, watching the flames dance in the fire.

Daniel kisses the back of my neck.  “Probably should go to bed.  We have a lot of climbing to do tomorrow.”

 

After going into the tent, I dig around in my bag for my nightclothes.  I look over and see Daniel taking off of his shirt.

For a moment, I find myself breathless from what I see.  He was no longer a skinny kid with lean muscles developed from years living on the streets.  He was still lean, but was obvious that he spent time working out at a gym now, instead.

Daniel notices me admiring him.  He smiles; I can detect a bit of mischief in his eyes.

He starts to unbutton his pants.  I look away.

He laughs.  “It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before, Sweetheart.”

“Not any time recently,” I say, still looking away.

“I’m just teasing you.”  I hear him dressing.  “It’s okay now.  I’m decent.”

“Your turn to turn away.”  I see him turning his head.  Although he put on a pair of shorts to wear to bed, he still has his shirt off.  “No peeking.”

I start putting my nightclothes on.  “Would I look?”

“You just admitted to me last month that you would have looked if you had been the one to give me a bath when we were fifteen!”

“Yeah, that was when I was fifteen.  Besides, I already know what you look like.”

I finish dressing, and then hit him with my pillow.

“It’s true!”  He turns back around, and puts his arms around me.  “I wouldn’t look today because I wouldn’t want you to be upset.  Real upset, not pretend upset like you are right now.”

I lean my head against his chest.  “I love you June,” he whispers.

“I love you too.”

He kisses me.  My heart starts beating faster, and I almost feel like I did when we were fifteen.  I can tell that he wants me, and all I can think about is how much I want him.

After what was probably a few minutes (I can’t tell for sure, I lost track of time) he pulls away.  He has a confused look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, putting my hand on his cheek.

He closes his eyes.  “I don’t know what to think sometimes.  We’ve only known each other for a little over a month; or have I known you for twelve years?  I don’t know.  There’s a part of me that feels like I just met you, and yet –

“I _know_ that the time that we spent together – the years that I don’t remember – had an impact on me.  They changed me.  Even my _brother_ noticed it, and I had to start living on the streets when he was about five years old.  Before I met you, I was always trying to flirt with the cute girls, trying to get a kiss from them.  When I was living in Antarctica, I only kissed two girls; even then, something just felt _wrong_ about it.  It was like something in my soul was screaming out ‘no, you have someone, and this isn’t her.’”  He laughs nervously.  “I know, that sounds stupid, yeah?”

I shake my head.  “No, it doesn’t sound stupid at all, and I remember everything.  Anden – well, he was interested in me back when I was with you the first time – after you had been away for several years, he convinced me to go out with him.  We eventually started dating, but, even though he was nice, he was never _you_.  I couldn’t love him the way that I love you, even though I tried.  That’s why I broke up with him.  I knew what it felt like to love you.  I didn’t want to settle for less than that.”

“Do you think that Eden and Tess were behind all of this?”

“Absolutely.”

“Gotta love them for it.”

Daniel kissed me quickly on the cheek, then settled into his sleeping bag.  “Well, goodnight love.  Looking forward to tomorrow.”

“Good night, Daniel.”

As I burrowed into my sleeping bag, I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear.  I’m sure to have good dreams tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This, and what will probably be the next two chapters, was originally supposed to be one chapter. There is just too much stuff that the "story gods" wanted the characters to do on this camping trip.
> 
> I'm moving at the end of March (where to, I'm not entirely sure, hopefully to this house that we're trying to buy) so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get the next chapter out. I also have to do mountain climbing research first, since the most I've ever done is use a climbing wall.


	15. Yosemite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel and June climb El Capitan.

**Daniel**

I wake to the smell of frying bacon and eggs.  The ground beneath me is hard, just like it was in the days when I lived out in the streets of Los Angeles, but the warm sleeping bag reminds me that I am definitely not living out on the streets any more.

Sunlight filters in through the tent, warming the air around me.  I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes.  I'll be climbing El Capitan with June today.  I feel a little lighter at the thought.

I throw a shirt on and step out of the tent, where I see June frying up bacon and eggs.  I stand behind her and put my arms around her waist.

"You're distracting me," she says.  "I might catch something on fire."

"You already have," I murmur into her neck.  My desire for her was inflamed this morning.  I don't know why.  Maybe it was watching her fall asleep as I drifted off last night.  Maybe being close to her was exposing long-buried feelings that I had forgotten over the years.

But she was right.  We have things that we want to do today, and I could kiss her any time.  I release her and allow her to continue cooking.  I sit down on a stump around the fire and watch her flip the bacon.  "We need to get our packs ready, yeah?"  I ask.

I look at her and watch her nod.  I can tell that she is still slightly flustered.  I can't help but grin at the effect that I'm having on her.

I go to the car and get our packs out.  I make sure that they have everything that we need for the day:  safety gear, trail mix and dried meat to eat, water, sunscreen.  After the packs are ready, I look over at June.  She's scooping the breakfast onto two paper plates.  I go to sit down next to her.  Our shoulders are touching.

She hands me a plate of food and a fork.  I realize that I'm famished.  I savor the bacon and the eggs that she cooked for me, while at the same time, I enjoy her closeness.

"Everything ready?" she asks, taking a bite of a piece of bacon.

"Yes.  Food, water, safety gear, sunscreen."  Sunscreen was a luxury that we did without when I lived in Lake, but after ten years in Antarctica, I probably am going to want it today, since I'll be exposed to the sun all day.

She looks down at my leg.  She hasn't seen me wearing shorts since I got back from Antarctica.  "Your leg looks different."

"I had synthetic skin put on over my metal knee when I was in Antarctica," I say.  "It doesn't get freezing cold to the touch, and it has artificial nerve endings on it, so I can feel things through it.  It's pretty nice."

She puts her hand on my artificial knee.  While the touch doesn't feel the same on my artificial knee as it does on my real one, I can definitely feel her touching me.  Yes, very nice.  I smile at her.

"Well, we better get going," she says.  "There's a lot to climb."

We throw our paper plates in a plastic bag.  "We'll want to keep our trash in the car," June says.  "The smell will attract bears."  I've never seen a bear before, but I suppose that they would live out here.  We get in the car, and June drives us around the abandoned campground.  She stops as a deer crosses our path.  I've never seen one of those before in real life, either.

"This place is pretty amazing," I say.  "We don't have anything like this in Los Angeles," I say.  "Or Antarctica."

"When I was at Drake, we got to see some of this during our survival classes," June comments.  "But you're right.  In Los Angeles, we don't see much other than squirrels and birds."

The deer finishes crossing the road, and we continue on, stopping at an old, cracked parking lot in front of the base of El Capitan.  We hop out of the car and grab our packs.

I look up, studying the granite face.  "This has to be about as tall as some of the buildings in Antarctica," I say.

"It looks about 3000 feet."

"I don’t think we'll finish it all today."

June shrugs.  "It doesn't matter.  There's no law saying that we have to climb to the top.  We'll just climb for about half the day, and then come down."

I get the sunscreen out of my pack, and start putting it on my face.  "You'll get my back, yeah?"  She smiles and puts some sunscreen in her palm.  Her hands feel good on me as she rubs the back of my neck and skin not covered by my shirt.  When she finishes, I return the favor.

We get our safety harnesses out of our packs and start to hook it up.  I study the rock wall.  It looks like the climbing is doable.  As I look up the wall, I can see places where people had climbed the wall before, leaving anchors in the granite to hook up our equipment.  Although I don't really care for using the safety equipment at the rock walls at the gym, I'm glad to have it here.  I don't expect either of us to slip, but you never know.

When we're both ready to go, I start climbing first.  I find handholds and footholds to pull myself up on.  Although it's not exactly the same, it reminds me of the days that I used to climb up buildings.  When I find an anchor in the wall, I hook my safety equipment up to it.  June follows behind me.

"So, tell me about your life in Antarctica," June says.  "Every once in a while, I'd see a report about you on the news, and Tess would talk about you occasionally, but ten years is a long time."

I look down at her after finding another handhold.  "It wasn't all that exciting.  Eden and I shared an apartment, he went to school, I worked at the school for a while until he graduated, and then I went to work for Intelligence down there.  I spent a lot of time taking care of my brother."

"Any serious girlfriends?"

"You must like torturing yourself," I remark.  "But no, there wasn't really anybody.  I started dreaming about you shortly after I woke up from my coma.  I didn't know it was you, of course.  I think I went out on a couple of dates, kissed a couple of girls, but I just couldn't really get into the idea of looking.  I thought at the time that I was just busy caring for my little brother, but that was probably just an excuse.  A part of me was missing you the whole time."  I reach another anchor in the wall.  "What about you?  What were you up to for the past ten years?"

"I worked a lot.  I told you that I oversee all the troops in California; I've been doing that for a few years now.  I guess I worked a lot because I didn't have you to distract me."

I laugh.  "You find me distracting?"

"Very."  June unclips our rope from the anchor below me.  "I went out with Anden for a few years --"

" _The_ Anden, as in, Elector Primo Anden?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, I remember several years ago, when Anden and some other big shots came to Antarctica for a peace conference.

"You want to hear something funny?" I ask.

"Sure."

"Several years ago, I had to do background checks for a bunch of VIPs who were visiting for a peace conference.  Anden was among the guests, and so was his 'significant other', June Iparis.  Of course, your name meant nothing to me at the time.  You just reminded me of that."

"That's funny."

"When I was doing your background check, I remember reading about how you got a perfect trial score, were a former Princeps-Elect, and had all these other great things written about you, and I had to ask myself, 'is she for real'?  You seemed too amazing to be true."

I hear her sigh.  "Daniel, if you only knew."

"Knew what?"

"How amazing you are."

I give her a puzzled look.  "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I told you that you also got a perfect 1500 score on the trials.  You did that without all of the advantages that I did.  There's so much that happened that you don't remember.  You cared so much about the people.  You helped Anden realize that everybody is important, even if they didn't have money."  She pauses for a moment, grabbing onto another handhold.  "The Republic might not even exist today if it wasn't for you."

"What?"

"The people listened to you because they knew you cared about them.  You came up with a plan for Anden to give a false surrender, then met the Chancellor of the colonies on his ship and told everybody to rise up and fight for the Republic.  You did this all while you were dying.  Of course, you didn't die; you ended up having surgery that saved your life."

I pull myself up to a ledge.  "You make me sound like a totally different person."  I look up to see clouds gathering overhead.

"That's who you are, Daniel," June says to me.  "I so wish that you could see yourself the way that I do."

_I don't deserve June_ , I think to myself.  In that moment, I'm so thankful that she cares about me so much.  I don't know how some street kid like myself ended up with her, but I'm awed at how I ended up here, with her.

We continue to climb for about another hour.  Sweat drips down my back, and my muscles are beginning to feel sore, but in a good way.  I feel a drip of water on my head.

"Did you feel that?"  I ask.

"What's that?"

"It's beginning to rain."

"That's not good.  Do you think we should head down?"

I would like to keep climbing, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea.  Granite can become slippery in the rain.  I'd hate to see June slip.  "I'd like to keep going, but we probably shouldn't."

June starts heading down.  I take one good look around me before finding a foothold below me.  The view from up here is amazing, and I'm not just thinking about June.

While we descend, the rain starts pouring harder.  The rock begins to feel slippery beneath my fingers.  I want to get out of here, but I know that now is the time to be extra careful.

Then it happens.  My foot slips.

The other foot slips at the same time, and my fingers lose their grip.  Time flows in slow motion, as I try, unsuccessfully, to grab onto anything solid, and feel myself sailing through the air.  My rope pulls taut against the anchor tethered to the cliff face, and my head hits something hard.  My side hits something sharp.  I'm bleeding.

June's eyes widen, and she quickly descends to where I am.  Her eyes are full of panic.

"Hang in there, Day," she says.  I don't know if I can do that.  I feel myself slipping out of consciousness.

She takes her shirt off.  The pain in my head and my side is unbearable, and my mind is beginning to slip away, but I can't help but admire how she looks in her pink sports bra.  I can't help but admire her smooth stomach, looking the same way that it does in my dreams, but this is reality.  Too bad I'm about to lose consciousness.  She starts to wrap her shirt around the wound in my side, presumably to stop the bleeding.

That's the last thing I see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the two-year wait. I did say that I didn't know when I was going to update this again, right? Although I didn't mean for it to be so long. At first I was intimidated about writing about mountain climbing, but then months dragged by and I forgot about it. Then I had to read the entire series again so I could get back into the characters' heads.
> 
> I hope you'll find it worth the wait. I have another Marie Lu fanfic in the works, but I won't start publishing it until I completely finish at least the first draft (don't want anybody having to wait 2 years for an update).
> 
> Thanks for reading! Oh, and the draft versions of the next two chapters are already finished, as well as the outlines for the next four chapters after that. I'm not sure how many chapters it will end up being, although I suspect that my outlined chapter 21 is only a few months before the end of the story.


	16. Mountain Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June has to get Daniel off the mountain and to the hospital.

**June**

The rain is incessant.  Dribbles of water slide down my back, but right now, most of it is not sweat from exertion.  It's the rain that's falling down.  The rock is slick beneath my fingers and feet, and part of me wishes that I hadn't suggested that we start heading down as soon as those dark clouds started forming above us.  It's too late now, however.

Above me, I see something that leaves me horrified.  Daniel's foot slips.  He tries to scramble to regain his footing, but he loses his grip, and begins to plummet downward.

I'm thankful that we were smart enough to use safety equipment.

I watch him as he smacks his head against the side of the wall, and wince at the sound.  I carefully, but quickly, rush down to where he is, and secure myself to the ropes where we are.  I need to keep myself safe in order to help him.

I think back to my survival courses that I've taken over the years.  First, I need to check the victim.  His eyes are open, but unfocused.  "Hang in there, Day," I encourage him, instinctively reverting to the name that I used to call him when we were teenagers.  I can tell that he's attempting to maintain consciousness.

The first thing I notice about his injuries is that he hit a jagged rock and his side is bleeding.  _I need to stop the bleeding, as much as possible._   Although I have a few bandaids in my pack, the only thing that I have that is big enough to cover that injury is my shirt.  That'll have to do.

I feel a little self-conscious as I wriggle my shirt off in front of him; the task is made more difficult by the safety harness I'm wearing.  Keeping him alive is most important to me at this point; besides, as Daniel said last night, it's not like he hasn't seen me without my shirt on before, and apparently, that's one of the things that he remembers.  In his unfocused daze, Daniel even seems to be slightly amused.  Good.  Maybe it will keep him conscious.

I press my shirt up to his side and try to stop the bleeding.  I tie it around his waist as tightly as I can.  This is going to have to do, for now.  I need to get him off this mountain.  Unfortunately, it looks like he has fully lost consciousness at this point.  My heart sinks, reminded of the time that I discovered that Day was dying from his head injury, or the time that Captain Jameson shot him and he almost _did_ die from gunshot wounds.

I try to remember the one class that I had, years ago, on mountain rescues.  I'm going to have to lower him the rest of the way.  Even though I'm strong, this isn't going to be easy.  He probably weighs about 30 pounds more than I do, due to his extra height and additional muscle.  There's an anchor in the wall close to where I am right now.  I secure the rope to the anchor and begin the difficult process of getting him down.  Fortunately, I can let gravity assist me with part of this job.

By the time we get to the bottom, I am exhausted and covered with sweat.  I need to get Daniel into the car, but I don't want to drag him and scrape him up worse than he already is.  I left a blanket in the trunk in case we wanted to have a picnic at some point.  I get the blanket and roll him onto it, then drag the blanket over to the car.  I strain to place him into the car and then I secure him with a seat belt.

"Hang in there, Daniel," I whisper to him, even though I know he can't hear me.  At least he's not bleeding any more.

I quickly drive to our campsite and retrieve the essentials.  I throw our suitcases in the back of the car and grab Daniel's sleeping bag to cover him.  He needs to stay warm.  Everything else is just going to have to stay.  If Daniel has something irreplaceable here, I'll have a patrol stop by and retrieve it next time they're in the area.  Otherwise, I don't really care.

I do take five seconds to throw a shirt back on, however.

Being out in the middle of nowhere like this, I can't even call anybody.  I won't be able to let anybody know what has happened until I'm a little north of Los Angeles.

I leave the campground as quickly as I can.  It's approximately 300 miles to Los Angeles, where the closest hospitals are.  It would take three hours of driving if I could drive at 100 miles per hour, which will not happen for most of the way, due to the curves, condition of the road, and chances to run into wildlife along the way.  If I drive 50 miles per hour, which might be the fastest I can get in some places, it will take six hours.  So I estimate I won't be able to get Daniel to a hospital for somewhere between four and five hours from now.

I look over at him.  At least he's breathing, and he's no longer bleeding.

The experience driving back is not like it was going to Yosemite.  I'm in a rush, and I keep looking over to watch Daniel's breaths.  Fortunately, I don't see any deer or bear on the roadways.

When I finally reach the outskirts of civilization, I stop to refill the car with gas.  I also make a call to Tess.

"Tess, it's me, June," I say.  "It's an emergency.  It's about Daniel."

I know that she's probably busy at the hospital, although unless she's working nights, she might be finishing up her shift.  It takes twenty seconds for her to answer.  "What's wrong, June?"

"He fell.  I need you to be ready to admit him as soon as we get there.  He lost consciousness several hours ago, but at least he's not bleeding anymore."

"I'm on it." I can hear the worry in her voice.

As I get in the car and head out of the gas station, I make another call to Captain Knittig, who I know should be on duty right now.  "Captain Knittig, it's Commander Iparis."

Five seconds.  "Yes, Commander?"

"I need to arrange for a military escort, in case there's any traffic.  Daniel Wing was in an accident and he needs to be admitted into the hospital as soon as possible.  I'll be heading into Los Angeles from the north in about ten minutes, thirty-five seconds.  We certainly don't want the hero of our Republic to be delayed any longer than he has to, right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

As I get closer to Los Angeles, I get a call from Tess.  "June, hospital visiting hours are over.  You should know that only _family members_ are going to be allowed to be with him until tomorrow."

I feel a wave of disappointment, knowing that I'm going to have to leave him in this condition.  "Is Eden there?  I've been so busy driving I forgot to call him."

"Yes, Eden rushed over as soon as he heard.  I figured that you might have other things to worry about at the moment, so I took care of informing him."

"Thank you."  At least he'll have Eden with him.

"Eden wanted you to know that he wouldn't mind if Daniel's _wife_ stayed with him this evening, just to make sure that everything went okay."

"But Daniel's not married."

"We _know_ that, June.  But everybody that knows otherwise is willing to look the other way.  Eden says that Daniel would want you to be there for him.  Outside of his brother, you're his closest friend."

"Got it."  I'm not above lying, although I feel funny lying about this.

"I'll have the paperwork ready when you arrive then.  See you soon."

I'm close to the city and the hospital.  I see my military escorts up ahead.  I call Captain Knittig and let him know that I'm headed their way.

 

When I reach the hospital, a group of nurses are ready to take Daniel away, and a valet driver is available to park my car.  I follow the nurses into a waiting room.  Eden is already waiting.  A tall, brown-haired man shakes my hand and introduces himself as Dr. Adams, and tells me that he will be overseeing Daniel's treatment tonight.

They unwrap him, first the sleeping bag, then the blanket that I drug him into the car with, then my bloody shirt, which is basically destroyed at this point.

Dr. Adams shakes his head.  "He's lost a lot of blood, by the looks of things," he remarks.  "He's going to need a transfusion with several pints of blood."

"I'd donate, but I'm not his blood type.  He's O, but I'm A positive."

Eden gives me an odd look.  "I have type O blood," he says.  "I'll donate a pint."  The doctor nods and motions for him to follow him to another room.  As Eden passes me, he asks "how did you know his blood type?  I didn't even know that."

I shrug.  "I read it in his file once."

A nurse looks over him.  "We're going to have to take him in for surgery," he says.  "You'll be able to wait for him right here until he gets back.  An admissions officer will come by with some paperwork for you to sign."

They wheel him out, and I sit down in a chair, exhausted.  It's been a long day.

A young woman with black-rimmed glasses comes in with an electronic clipboard.  "I need you to look over all of the paperwork and sign it, Mrs. Wing."

I take it from her and skim over the contents.  It's standard hospital paperwork, so I don't pay much attention to it.  I sign the bottom with the attached electronic stylus.

"Thank you.  The last thing I need for you to do is let me know how he will be paying for his treatment."

"I'll pay for it," I say.  I place my thumbprint in a box on the tablet, giving the hospital permission to access my bank account to pay for Daniel's treatment.  "I don't want you to skimp on his treatment, either, got that?  I know that he wouldn't ask for it, but I insist.  I’m happy to pay whatever the cost is."  I look over at the admissions officer.  "You do know who he is, right?"

She looks down at the tablet.  "No, I'm not familiar with Daniel Altan Wing."

"He used to go by the alias Day."

Her eyes widen.  "That's him?"  She looks down at the paperwork again.  "Then you must be _that_ June."

"Yes, I'm _that_ June."

"Then I will make sure that he's well taken care of."

I slump back down in the chair after she leaves, and I must have dozed off for a while, because the next thing I know, my eyes open and Eden is sitting in a chair next to me.  He notices me waking up.

"Thanks for getting my brother here back safely," he says quietly.

I wave my hand.  "It was nothing.  I just wish we would have started heading back down earlier.  Maybe we wouldn't be here tonight."

"So what happened?  Did he just fall?  That's so out of character for him."

"It was raining.  We were already headed back down, but the rock was really slippery."

A few minutes later, the same nurse that I saw earlier wheels him into the room.  He is still asleep, but the monitors next to him indicate that everything is stable.

"He's going to be fine," he says to us.  "He'll just need to rest for a while.  He had to have several stitches, but we took care of that, and did a scan of his head, and everything looks good.  We'll keep him here for observation until tomorrow afternoon, and then we'll send him home with some medicine to reduce the chances of infection."

He looks at me.  "Tess told us that he fell while mountain climbing.  I take it that you were the person who got him safely to the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Good job.  You were able to get him stabilized and safely down the mountain, which is no easy feat.  He has your quick thinking to thank for the fact that he survived."

I look down.  "It was something that anybody in my position would do."

"They might try, but evidently, you knew exactly what to do.  That was important."

The nurse leaves, and we continue to wait for Daniel to wake up.  I think I fall asleep for a while again.  Eventually, Daniel begins to stir.  He looks around, then rests his gaze on Eden, and then me.

"June," he says.  "You're wearing a shirt."

I can feel my face start to turn pink.  "Which I usually do when I'm not using it as a giant band-aid."  He grins at that.

"Glad to see you back, Daniel," Eden says.

Daniel looks at me.  "You look exhausted," he comments.  "You can tell me all about how I got here in the hospital, after you rest for a while."

"I'm not leaving you," I say.

"Good.  But you can still get some sleep, okay?  I'll be fine."

I allow myself to fall asleep, and don't wake up until the sunlight is streaming through the windows.  Eden is already awake, talking to Daniel.

"Morning, Sweetheart," Daniel says to me.

I smile at him.  "Good morning."

Eden looks over at me.  "I'm going to go get some breakfast.  I'm starving."

We wave goodbye to him, and Daniel motions me to come over.  He puts his arms around my waist, and I sit on his leg.

"I made you something," he says.  He holds out a paperclip ring.  "Now we match."

I put it on my right ring finger, and wrap my arms around his waist.  "Thank you." I kiss him.  "That's the second one you made me, you know.  I had to use the first one you made to escape from a pair of handcuffs when we were in the colonies."

He shakes his head.  "There is so much that I still don't know about our time together back then." He kisses me again.  "I guess I'm going to have to spend a lot more time with you so I can find out more."

I kiss him back.  "I'll be happy to do that."

He pulls me closer, and kisses my neck, then my jaw, and returns to my lips.  His kisses seem more urgent.  Part of me thinks about how Eden could end up walking through the door with his breakfast at any point, but I really don't care.  I want more of him.

"I love you, June," he whispers.

"I love you too."

There's a knock on the door, and Dr. Adams walks in.  I get off Daniel's leg and go sit back down in my chair.

"Everything looks really good," he says, looking down at his tablet.  "We'll look at his wound in a couple of hours, and assuming that everything continues to progress as we expect, we'll be able to send you home and you two can… continue with what you were doing."

I don't say anything to that.

Eden comes through the door, holding a box of orange juice, as the doctor starts examining Daniel.  His eyes dart between both of us, and he grins before sitting down in the chair next to mine.

"You two must have been doing something naughty," he says after the doctor leaves.

Daniel looks at him in shock.  "What makes you say that?"

"The look on your faces." He takes another sip of his orange juice.  "You looked like the doctor walked in on you making out or something."

"So when did my baby brother grow up and become an adult?"  Daniel asks.  "But you're right, we had been kissing."  He looks down at his shoes, embarrassed.  I guess it's difficult to watch your little brother grow up like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	17. Independence Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel and June go to the Independence Day military ball. He hates those things. Afterwards, Eden decides to have a little chat with his older brother.

**Daniel**

It's been a couple of weeks since I injured myself rock climbing, and my injuries have pretty much healed, thanks to the excellent medicine that I've been given to treat it.  Tonight, I have another date with June.

"You look nice this evening," Eden says to me, as I emerge from my bedroom after dressing.  "I'm sure June's going to love your outfit."

Tonight is the annual military ball to celebrate the Republic's Independence Day.  I guess for a while they considered adding another holiday to commemorate when I helped defend against the Colonies, but they decided against that, since it's less than a couple of weeks away.  They print "Day day" on calendars, but that's about it.  The military ball is black tie, so I had to go get a fancy outfit to attend.

"Thanks.  I think I'd rather have someone put my eye out with a hot poker than to attend these events with these goddy rich trots though.  The only good thing out of it is that I get to see June in a fancy dress."

"You know, you _are_ one of those goddy rich trots now.  You more so than me.  I know you have a ton of money in the bank."

I shrug.  "I've learned that up to a certain point, money is one of the most important things there is, you know?  It can literally save your life.  After you get a certain amount though, having more really doesn't mean that much.  You and I, we both have enough, you know?  It doesn’t really matter if I have more."

"You're right.  We both have enough."

I reflect for a moment on how far we've come, and how I'm thankful for where I am today.  I look at my brother.  "Do you think that Mom, Dad, and John would be proud of us?"

"I think they would."

I notice what Eden is wearing.  "Where are you going?" He's not dressed in black tie, but he does look a little dressed up for the evening.

"Oh, I have a project at work."

I raise my eyebrow.  "On a Saturday night?"

"Yeah, we're really excited about this project.""

"We?  As in… you and a cute brunette 20 year-old?"  Eden and Rilla had been seeing a lot of each other lately.  I'm happy for him.  He hadn't had many more dates than I had in Antarctica, and he didn't have a subconscious longing for someone that he forgot holding him back.  Maybe he was self-conscious about his eyesight.

Eden's face turns pink.  "Yeah, she'll be there.  But we really will be working on a project."

"Probably not for the whole evening," I say, winking at him.

"Yeah, probably not."  He puts his hands in his pockets.

I tousle his hair.  "Well, have a good time."

Eden waves goodbye and walks out the door.  I sit down on the couch.  June should be here any moment.  She bought a car last week, which will make it easier for us to go places together.

A few minutes later, I hear her knocking on the door.  "Hello, Sweetheart," I say, beaming.  She's wearing a strapless crimson dress this evening, along with the ruby necklace and earrings I gave her.  I wrap my arms around her waist.

"Hello Daniel," she says.  "You look stunning."

I look at her admiringly.  "Your dress is already driving me crazy," I say, running my fingers along the dress's neckline.  It seems like she's grown more curves since the dreams I remember seeing this part of her body in.

"I can see that you like it," she replies.

"Maybe someday you can come to my house in a fancy dress, without having to go hang out with all the boring politicians.  Or better yet, maybe you can put on a dress like this and I can come to your house.  That way we don't have to worry about Eden getting in the way."

"I saw him out in the hallway.  He looks nice tonight."

"Yeah, he has a 'work project' with Rilla." I make air quotes as I say _work project_.  "I think he just wants to spend time with her though."

She puts her arms around my shoulders.  "Maybe you don't need to worry about Eden being in the way so much.  He seems like a big boy."  She looks up at me.  "You know, I never thought about it, but you and Metias have some similarities.  You both had to care for your younger sibling after losing your parents.  And…" she kisses me.  "You both put everything into caring for your younger sibling at the expense of your love life."

"Maybe I was just waiting for you again, June."

"I wasn't talking about Antarctica."  She grabs my hand.  "Let's go."

 

We enter the ballroom for the Independence Day celebration; it's decked out in beautiful twinkling lights that remind me of twilight.  All this expense to suck up to people you don't like and perhaps talk about politics.  I can feel the artificiality of most of the people as I walk into the room.  I'm glad in my new job I don't really have to attend these things for work; although I will have to attend these fake gatherings with June sometimes.

June senses my discomfort.  "We don't have to stay long after dinner," she says.  "I think they'd notice if we at least didn't stay long enough for that, since we are sitting at Anden's table."

I make a point not to frown.  I must have thought that Anden was an okay person when I used to live in the Republic, since I endorsed him, and from what I've seen after coming back to live in Los Angeles, he has made a lot of improvements to the Republic, but no matter how good of an Elector he turns out to be, he's still my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.  That will probably always leave me uncomfortable.

"It will be okay," she says, grabbing onto my arm lightly in a gesture of support.

"Day?" someone behind me says.  She is pretty, with thick black curls, light brown eyes, and dark brown skin.

"I go by Daniel now," I say.  "I’m sorry, you are?"

"Faline Fedelma," she says.  She looks hurt that I don't remember her.  "We went to an Independence Day ball together, about ten or eleven years ago."

I give her a confused look.  I look over at June.  Why would I have gone to one of these balls with someone other than her?

"I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but Daniel had amnesia," June says quietly.  "He doesn't remember anything from that time period."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."  Her look seems genuine.

"Were we… seeing each other?" I ask.

Faline laughs.  "No, everybody here knows that you've always had a thing for June.  You were living in San Francisco, for medical treatments I guess, and you must have broken up with her before going away."

I'm even more confused.  "I broke up with June?"

"Yes, you didn't want to hurt me when you thought you were going to die from your brain condition," June says.  "The night you gave me this necklace.  If you want, we can talk about it more later."

I nod.  Remembering my manners, I reach out my hand to Faline, and shake her hand.  "Nice to meet you… again."  I say.

I meet a few more senators and military commanders, then the music stops, and we are supposed to face the flag and say the pledge.  We don't have to say it every day like we used to, but it's still something that we say on special occasions, like military balls.  I’m still not too excited about saying it, but I mumble the words along with everybody else.  After the pledge, we all take our seats.  My place card has me sitting at a table with Anden, some girl that is his date, an older lady that I recognize from photos as being Mariana Dupree, the Princeps, her husband, and a couple of other people that I guess are high ranking military commanders.

The people around us make small talk, and soon, waiters bring the first course to us, a Caesar salad.  I grab the salad fork from the outside like I've been doing this my entire life (which is not true, since I've only been going to fancy dinners like this for a few years now).

"I see you've figured out how to use a fork," Mariana says coolly.  "Last time I remember you ate with us, Daniel, you held up a carving knife and told us all how practical it was for buttering bread, skewering food, and slitting throats."

I laugh nervously.  "I would have said something like that, wouldn't I?  And they are practical."  I give her a cool look.  "Do you find it amusing to mock those that are less fortunate than you are?"

June puts her hand on my arm, as Mariana's mouth drops open.  "At any rate, I'd rather be someone who doesn't know which fork to use than someone who thinks it's perfectly fine to look down on those that don’t know how to use cutlery because they've never had enough to eat for most of their lives."

She looks down at her plate.  I'm trying to keep my anger under control.  "And for the record, as far as I know, I've never actually slit anybody's throat.  But I did probably kill some Colonians in that little war we had a while back, which might be one of the reasons why I have a day on the calendar and you do not."  I decide to keep my mouth shut after that.

"So, how about this salad?" Anden's date says.  I've learned that her name is Elaine Dawson, and she's a daughter of one of the senators.  Anden seems to like her.  Good.

"You look very nice today, June," Anden says, trying to continue to lighten things up.  He looks at her neckline.  "You've always seemed to like that necklace."

I feel my mouth twist in a gesture of amusement.

"Something funny about that statement?" Anden asks.  "It is a pretty necklace."

"Somehow, I doubt that's why it's her favorite necklace," I comment dryly.  "Although I guess that I do have good taste in jewelry.  When I got her these earrings for her birthday, I didn't even remember giving it to her, but they match perfectly, don't you think?"

Across the table from me, Anden's face falls.

I get a confused look on my face.  "What?"

"Anden didn't know that you gave me that necklace," June says quietly.

"Oh."  I look down at my plate.

Anden frowns.  "Is _he_ why you broke up with me?"

June looks at her plate.  "Yes."

I look at June.  "You were still seeing him?  Why wasn't he at your birthday --"

"I broke up with him over a year ago."

"But I was living in Antarctic-- oh."  I realize that she must have been thinking about me this whole time, just as I had been thinking about her.  "Really?"

"Yes."  She sighs.

The rest of the meal goes fairly uneventfully, but I can still feel the tension in the room.

"I hate these things," I say as we get in the car.

"I know," she replies.  I can tell that she's not really that happy either.

 

When we get back to my apartment, she walks back upstairs with me.  Some of the tension from the dinner has already dissipated a bit.

I put my arms around her.  "I love you," I say quietly.

"I love you too," she says.  "I'm sorry this evening turned out like it did."

I hold her for a few minutes, quietly.  After a while, I kiss her, and she kisses me back.

"I'll see you Friday," I say, and watch her leave.

I sit down on the couch and run my hand through my hair.  Eden comes out, gets a glass of water, and sits down next to me.

"Don't send her home on my account," he says, taking a drink.

"What?"

"If you don't want to sleep with her because you just started seeing each other again a couple of months ago, or some other reason, that's fine, but don't send her home because of me."

I give him a strange look.

"Let me put it this way.  I know you've been having sex dreams about her for the last ten years."

"What?"  I feel heat rising to my cheeks.

He leans back on the couch.  "I really didn't know what they were at first, I mean, I was twelve, but I kinda figured it out after a while.  I never said anything because I didn't want to embarrass you."

I stare at him.

"Sometimes you'd say her name, so I know it was her you were dreaming about.  Once I accidentally mentioned her to you, and you asked me what her name was, and I lied.  I knew damn well who she was.  She visited you every day in the hospital for five months.  I don't think she missed a day.  She was probably there more than I was; Lucy would make me go back home after a while."

"She did?  Why didn't you tell me who she was?"

Tess said that she didn't want you to know.  I guess she thought that you being with her was too painful for you, so when you woke up from your coma and didn't remember her, she let you go.  I know she loved you.  I don't think she ever stopped loving you."

I rest my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.  This is a lot to process all at once.

He puts his arm around my shoulder.  "A couple of years ago you started to cry in your sleep on occasion.  A couple of times I heard you cry 'where are you, June?'  It was shortly after that that I started looking into going back to Los Angeles.  Then I talked to Tess, and she was still seeing Anden, so I thought that it might not be a good time.  After they broke up, I knew it was time to head back."

He pauses for a moment.  "The day we got back here, I knew we were going to June's birthday party.  Although I didn't know that we were going to see June on the street before we arrived."

I look at my brother.  "When did you and Tess become so sneaky?"

He shrugs.

He gives me a wicked grin.  "Oh, and if you still might be under the mistaken impression that I think that you and June are as pure as the driven snow, I know you were sleeping with each other before we left for Antarctica."

"What?"

"Not hard to figure out.  Not after you told me that your dreams of June were actually memories."

I shake my head.  This is not what I want my little brother talking to me about.

"Anyway, I wasn't trying to embarrass you; I just wanted you to stop worrying about me.  I know you had to act like my mom for a while, but you don't need to do that any more."  He finishes his water and goes back to his bedroom.  I continue to sit on the couch and try to process everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I just finished writing chapter 20. I think I'm going to be able to keep this rated T... that's my goal at least.


	18. Wedding Rehearsal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tess's wedding rehearsal. Everybody goes to June's afterwards for dinner. Tess is supposed to stay with June that night for a "girl's night in" so Pascao doesn't see Tess before the wedding.

**June**

"You look magnificent!" Antonio, the tailor that Tess hired for the wedding, says to me.  Tonight is the night before Tess and Pascao's wedding, and we are at the church, trying on our wedding attire for a final time.  I am one of two bridesmaids, and we are wearing light blue, form-fitting dresses.  Tess's wedding dress is a brighter blue.  In the other room, Pascao, Daniel, Eden, and the other groomsman are trying on their tuxedoes.

"Are you nervous?" I ask Tess, after Antonio leaves the room to check to see if any of the tuxedoes need any last-minute alterations.

Tess shakes her head and grins.  "I suppose we could have done this a long time ago; we've been together for almost forever."

"You're so lucky," Elaine, the other bridesmaid, says, wriggling out of her dress.  "I always seem to attract all of the losers."  She has curly black hair that falls just above her shoulders.  Elaine is one of Tess's coworkers at the hospital.  I don't know her very well.

"I'm sure you'll find somebody," Tess says, putting her hand on Elaine's shoulder.  "Everybody loves you at the hospital."

After we put our other clothes back on and hang up our dresses, we leave the fitting room, which is actually the ladies' changing room for the church's baptistry.  I smile when I see the guys leaving their fitting room.

"Elaine, this is Eden," Tess says, gesturing towards Daniel's brother.  "And this is --"

"Day," Elaine says.  "I'd recognize you anywhere.  I used to have a major crush on you."  She puts her arm on his shoulder.  "I painted a scarlet streak in my hair and everything."

"Well, uh, I'm flattered," he says nervously.  "I see that you've already met my girlfriend, June."  He breaks free of her grasp and puts his arm around me.

Elaine's mouth twists in annoyance.

"We need to practice marching in," Tess says.  "You all know what order you're coming in, correct?"

Elaine and the other groomsman (I think his name is Peter) will march in first, followed by Daniel and I, followed by Eden, who will be carrying the rings.  Finally, Tess will walk down the aisle.

We practice marching in several times, until everybody feels comfortable with their roles tomorrow.

 

Tess is going to stay with me tonight, after we all have dinner together.  We're going to have a little "girl's night in," mainly so that she won't have to see Pascao before the wedding tomorrow.  We all head to my house after rehearsal for a simple catered dinner of pasta and vegetables.  Rilla came by, even though she's not part of the wedding ceremony, because Eden wanted her around.  She seems nice enough.

Daniel sits next to me, while Eden sits on his other side.  I'm glad that Elaine is sitting on the other side of the table; I don't really like how one of the first things she ever said to my boyfriend was that she had once had a crush on him.  I'm not exactly sure that her feelings have been left in the past.

"So, where are you going for your honeymoon?" Daniel asks.  He casually puts a forkful of pasta in his mouth with one hand.  He lowers his other hand and places it on my knee.

"We're going to New York City," Pascao says.  "It's supposed to be nice there."

"I went there once," I say.  "It was a few years ago though.  The stars are so beautiful out there.  I know you'll have a great time."  Daniel's hand has moved underneath my skirt.

I suppose I could push his hand away, if I wanted to.  I really don't though.

"It's nice that we can visit the Colonies now," Peter interjects.  "So many other parts of the world are too expensive to get to."

"I'm glad that the old Chancellor of the Colonies finally died," I say.  Before the war ended, he had been blackmailing Daniel to support his cause rather than that of the Republic, threatening to have me killed when the Colonies won the war if he didn't comply.

"Me too," Pascao adds.

Daniel's hand is now halfway up my thigh.  He's nonchalantly eating pasta with his other hand.  I'm trying to focus on the conversation and the food, but that's increasingly becoming more difficult.  I look over him, and he gives me an almost imperceptible look of mischief.  He obviously knows what he's doing to me.

I have a feeling that this little game is going to be up as soon as I give any indication that anything out of the ordinary is going on under the table.  His little brother is here, after all, and Daniel doesn't seem to be into showing me as much affection when Eden's around.

The conversation drifts, and we're soon talking about how life in Los Angeles has improved since Anden became the Elector Primo.  Daniel's hand is now on my underwear.  He starts putting his fingers _into_ my underwear.  I'm not sure if I can maintain a neutral expression if he goes much farther.

Two can play at that game.

I casually drop my hand below the table.  I take a bite of my pasta with my other hand, trying to maintain a straight face.

I reach over and put my hand on his crotch, squeezing lightly.  His eyes widen, just slightly, and he lets out a little gasp.

Game over.  He takes his hand out of my underwear and smooths down my skirt.

"Are you all right, Daniel?" Tess asks.

"I'm fine, I --" he pauses for a moment.  "I know it's completely random, but that's how this memory thing works sometimes.  I just remembered how I used to have these terrible headaches, and I was dying." He laughs.  "Glad they took care of that."

I smirk at him.  He's good at thinking on his feet.

 

After dinner, Peter and Elaine go home.  Daniel and I step out on my balcony.  He puts his arms around my waist.

"What was that all about?" I ask.  "At the dinner table."

"Can't a guy like to touch his pretty girlfriend?"  He kisses me.  "I hope it wasn't bothering you.  Was it too much, too soon?"  He pulls me closer.  "You know I never would want to touch you if you didn't want me to."

"I know," I say, "It didn't bother me.  Although it was a little distracting, in a good way." I kiss him.  "You and I have been pining for each other, in our own different ways, for over ten years." I grin at him mischievously.  "I’m not sure if there really is too much, too soon, any more."

He sighs.  "Maybe when I first got here, but now I _know_ you're the girl that I've been looking for all this time.  I don't know what we were like the first time we were together, but I love being around you now.  You drive me insane, June."

"I think that things are better now than they were back then."

I feel dizzy all of a sudden, almost like I'm about to pass out.  I'm a little nauseous as well.  I put my hand on my head.  "Daniel, I don't feel so good all of a sudden."

He looks at me with concern.  "You do look a little pale.  Come on, you need to rest."

I lean on him as he takes me back into my apartment and walks me towards my bedroom.  "I’m afraid that your 'girls night in' is going to be a little boring," Daniel says to Tess.  "June doesn't feel very well."

Eden looks over at us and raises his eyebrows.

Daniel pulls back my covers and I get into bed.  "Get some rest June.  I'll see you tomorrow."  He kisses me on my forehead and walks out of the room.  I fall asleep quickly after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading; I hope you like this chapter.
> 
> I thought that this was going to be the only fanfic that I intend to write in this fandom, but today I came up with another idea. Don't know when I'll get around to writing it, since I have at least this and one other project to finish first (and I think there's too much to the story to write it as a short story) but if you like my work and the Legend Trilogy, then eventually I hope to have another story here for you. At the moment, for my new idea, I'm just coming up with an outline and am doing a small amount of research.


	19. Tess's Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tess's wedding and the reception afterwards.

**Daniel**

I can't believe that Tess is getting married today.

I remember when I first met her.  Dirty, disheveled, and afraid to form any bonds like a normal human being.  Hard to believe that the little girl that followed me around in Lake, patching up my cuts and bruises when I got into trouble, is even old enough to get married.  I guess that the transformation seems so sudden because I was away for ten years.

Pascao seems nice.  I guess we met when he was a part of the Patriots, but of course I don't remember that.  I've gotten to know him over the past couple of months since I returned to the Republic.  He's a good match for Tess, I think.  I know they love each other a lot.

I haven't seen June or Tess yet today.  Pascao, Eden, Peter, and I have been putting on our tuxedoes in the men's dressing room, and June has been hiding Tess away in the ladies' room.  I guess there's some old superstition about the groom not seeing the bride on the day of the wedding.  It's supposed to be bad luck or something.

"You look really good," I say to Pascao, straightening his collar.  "I guess it's about time for you to go out there."

He grins.  "See you."

Eden smooths down the sides of his tuxedo.  "I guess we better get the girls."

We exit the dressing room and knock on the girls' dressing room.  June answers the door.  I can't believe how stunning she looks.

"Are you about ready?" I ask.

She nods.  "Tess is super-excited.  It's cute."

We all line up, Elaine and Peter first, June and I second, and Eden carrying the rings third.  Tess will follow behind all of us.  June must have let Tess borrow some of her jewelry.  Tess is wearing tiny sapphires in her hair, matching her dress.  I'm sure that Tess couldn't afford those.

"Well, let's go," June says.

As we march in, I notice the people attending the wedding.  It's a fairly small wedding; Tess doesn't have any family any more, so it's attended mostly by some of her coworkers and their families.  Pascao says that some of the former Patriots are in attendance as well, but since I don't remember my time working with the Patriots, they will recognize me and I won't recognize them.  That happens sometimes just because I was Day, however.  Like when Elaine told me yesterday that she used to have a crush on me.

We take our places for the ceremony and the wedding march begins to play.  Pascao beams as he watches Tess walk down the aisle.  Tess radiates an air of happiness also.  When she reaches the front of the church, they take each other's hands.

"Marriage is a sacred thing," the preacher begins.  "The joining of two lives that were meant to be from the creation of the world."  I look over at June.  Do I believe in a higher power that makes things happen?  I don't know.  Perhaps there's some being overlooking the events of this universe -- after all, what are the odds that I would find June again after having amnesia and leaving the continent for ten years?  If I entertain the belief in a higher power, however, I have to also wonder why there is so much evil in the world.  Why did I have to spend more than five years living on the streets?  Why are there poor people _still_ suffering, even though so many people have worked to change things?  I don't know.

As I think about these things, the preacher has finished his monologue and is moving on to the vow portion of the ceremony.  Eden carries the heart-shaped pillow bearing the rings to the couple.

"Pascao, do you take Tess to be your wife?"

"I do."

He places a ring on Tess's finger.  I saw it earlier today.  It's a simple ring, although showing someone that you love someone doesn't have to be expensive.  My paperclip ring certainly wasn't expensive.  The one that I made June the other day didn't cost me anything -- I made it with a few paperclips that I took out of the drawers at the hospital while June was sleeping.  I spin the ring that June gave me.  I wonder what she was thinking when she made it for me?  I don't remember anything about it, other than I know she gave it to me, and that it was on my finger when I woke up from my coma.

Tess has already put her ring on Pascao's finger.  What a good friend I am, yeah?  I'm at my oldest friend's wedding, and my mind keeps drifting off into other thoughts.

"You may now kiss the bride," the preacher says.

They both kiss each other, and we all march down the aisle, into the waiting area of the church.  The reception is going to be downstairs, so we head down there.

 

June and I are sitting with Eden and Rilla at one of the round tables at the reception, eating a slice of cake and drinking a glass of punch.

"Some of the wealthier people sometimes have these giant catered meals at their weddings," June tells me, taking a bite of cake.  "I haven't been to many weddings, but once I had to go with Metias to one of his friend's weddings.  It seems like a waste of money."

I look at her and nod.  She seems a little tired today.  "Did you sleep well?" I ask, putting my hand on hers.  "I know that you weren't feeling very good last night."

"I fell asleep almost as soon as my head touched the pillow," she says, "so I got plenty of sleep."  She looks over at me, thoughtfully.  "I do feel a little tired, however.  In fact, all last week I've been a little more tired than normal, although I didn't really think anything about it until last night, when I got so dizzy all of a sudden."

"Could you be --" Eden asks.

"Not a chance." I interrupt.  Our little game at the dinner table last night was the most that I've touched her since returning from Antarctica.  If June _was_ pregnant, then she would have a little explaining to do.  It seems highly improbable though.

June takes another drink of her punch.  "I'm going to head to the bathroom really quick," she says.  "Maybe if I splash some water on my face, I'll feel better."

I watch her as she heads towards the entrance to the bathrooms, which are on the other side of the room.

"Time to throw the bouquet," Elaine says gleefully.  "All the single ladies come over here."

"Come on June."  I watch Tess grab June by the elbow, momentarily stopping her.  "Everybody knows you're next anyway," she says more quietly, but still loud enough for me to hear from the other side of the room.

I shake my head at the thought, but then I look around the room at the other ladies there.  There are a lot of children, some former Patriots, a few hospital workers, and Rilla.  Maybe she's right.  I hadn't really thought much about it though.  Part of me feels like we just met, although I know that that's not the case.

After all the single ladies gather around Tess, she turns around and gets ready to throw the bouquet.  _Did June just sway while she was standing?_   I hope she's not catching the flu or anything.

Tess throws the bouquet, and June catches it.

And passes out cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I still have writer's block for this story at chapter 22. Fortunately, once I finish chapter 23, the remaining chapters are going to be pretty easy to write.
> 
> With the way things are going, I might actually finish the other Legend fanfic that I've been working on before this one. I have a pretty good idea about how that one is going to end, and I'm currently working on the middle section of the book.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Comments are always welcome!


	20. Sickness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> June wakes up after passing out.

**June**

I wake up in my apartment on my couch, wearing only my underwear, covered up by a sheet.  I have no clue how I got here.  I feel a little disoriented and afraid.  I look around to assess my surroundings.

One of my dining room chairs is sitting next to me.  My bridesmaid's dress is draped over the back of the chair, and Daniel's tuxedo jacket is hanging over the dress.  Some of my athletic clothes are folded on the seat of the chair.  A vase of flowers is sitting on my dining room table.  Daniel is in the kitchen, making something.  He's still wearing his tuxedo, although his jacket is off.

Was I drugged?  Did I drink too much?  I can probably rule out passing out from alcohol, considering I only had one glass of punch and I don't even think it had any alcohol in it.  It's unlikely that Daniel drugged me; that would make no sense.  For one thing, he didn't really need to drug me to touch me.  Second, if he wanted to drug me in order to take advantage of me, he wouldn't still be here in my kitchen, and he wouldn't have bought me flowers, unless he was a sociopath, and Daniel is not a sociopath.  Third, someone covered me up with a sheet, so whoever put me here wanted me to retain some semblance of modesty.  Fourth, it doesn't feel like anybody removed my underwear at any point; I could imagine how difficult it would be to dress someone who was passed out like that.

Daniel seems to have noticed my stirring and turns around.  "You're awake," he says, coming over to me and sitting next to me on the couch.  "How are you feeling?"  He puts his hand on my hair and smooths it down.

"What happened?" I ask.  "Did we --"

"You passed out at the wedding," he replies.  "Right after you caught the bouquet."  His face turns red.  "Tess, Pascao and I took you back to your apartment.  Tess said that you shouldn't be wearing tight clothes, and since your dress was really tight, she took it off."

I think he turns even redder at this point.  "Don't worry, I didn't look."  I sit up, with the intention of teasing Daniel.  I let the sheet drape around my waist.  "Until now, that is.  If you're going to willingly show me your body, I’m more than happy to look."  At that, he looks down at my chest, which is covered by a bra, and my stomach.  He grins mischievously.

I laugh.

"Tess and Pascao left for their honeymoon, but you have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow morning.  I hope you don't mind if I stay with you until then.  I don't want you by yourself when we don't know why you haven't been feeling well and then passed out."

I nod.  "That's fine."

"You need to put some clothes on though.  I'm going to have to call Eden and have him stop by and bring me a change of clothes.  I really don't want to hang out in this tuxedo until after your doctor's appointment tomorrow.  I don't think Eden would be as excited at seeing you in your underwear as I am."  He smiles.  "And to be honest, I don't really like the idea of other guys looking at you in your underwear either.  Even if it is my brother.  Tess says that you should wear something loose-fitting, so I brought out some of your sweats."

"Thanks."  I grab the shirt and start to put it on.

 

I hear a knock on my door, and Daniel answers it.  Eden and Rilla enter.

"How are you feeling?" Rilla says, giving me a hug.

"I'm feeling okay," I say.  My voice sounds a little tired.

"My girlfriend caught you when you fell," Eden grins.  "You should have seen how fast Daniel ran over to you after you passed out.  I don't think I've ever seen him run as fast in my life, and that's saying something, because I've seen him run fast before."

Eden hands the duffel bag that he's carrying to Daniel.  "Maybe you should keep some extra clothes around here all the time, just in case."

Daniel rolls his eyes.  "I highly doubt June is going to make fainting spells a normal part of her routine."

Eden pokes him in the ribs.  "Maybe she will, if it gets you to stay over here."

"Very funny."

"Would you like anything to drink?" I offer.

"No thank you, Rilla and I are going out tonight."

Daniel smiles at his brother.  "You mean spending all day with her at the wedding wasn't enough?"

"You spent all day with June."

Daniel puts his arm around my waist.  "To be fair, she was sleeping most of the time.  Not very good company."

Eden shrugs.  "Well, we have to be going.  I'll see you tomorrow."

After they leave, Daniel turns towards me.  "Are you hungry?  You haven't had anything to eat since the wedding."

I feel my stomach rumbling.  "Yeah, a little, now that you mention it."

"What would you like?" he asks.  "I can make anything that you have in your kitchen, or I can have something delivered."

"Having something delivered is expensive."

Daniel shrugs.  "And?  It's only a little more expensive than going to a restaurant.  If you hadn't fainted, I'd probably take you somewhere this evening anyway.  Just consider it a date.  At your house.  With you wearing sweats.  And me wearing… whatever the hell Eden decided to pack for me."

I laugh.  "Okay, fine, have something delivered."

"Chinese?"

"Sure."  Chinese food is something that was relatively recently introduced to the Republic.  Even in the gem sectors, it wasn't available to us before the end of the war.

Daniel makes a call to the nearest Chinese restaurant to order our meal, then takes a look into his duffel bag.  He pulls out a pair of khakis and a t-shirt.  "I'm glad he didn't pack anything embarrassing, at least."

"Like skimpy underwear?" I grin.  "I think Eden likes us together though.  He wouldn't pack anything intentionally to make you look bad."

He starts unbuttoning his shirt.  He smiles at me mischievously.  "I guess it's only fair that I change my clothes in front of you, since you changed your clothes in front of me."

"Aren't people supposed to get undressed at the end of a date?"  I giggle.

"We could do that too."  He looks at me for a moment.  "Tess did say that you were supposed to take it easy until you see the doctor's tomorrow.  Nothing that gets your heart rate up.  So I guess we can't have too much fun in that regard."

I pretend to pout.  I just have a little lightheadedness.  It's probably nothing.  I probably would go ahead and ignore the nurse's suggestions, but I'm guessing that Daniel will want me to follow doctor's orders.

After the delivery people arrive, we eat dinner at my table.  I start to feel dizzy again.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asks, noticing that something is off with me.

"Yeah, I'm all right," I reply.  "I'm just feeling… a little dizzy, that's all."

"That means you're not all right.  Come on, I know it's early, but you need to rest."  He puts his arm around me and supports me as he takes me to my bedroom.

"Stay with me," I say, as I rest my head on the pillow.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Not on the couch," I clarify.  "Here with me."  I smile at him.  "It will be like camping, except under the same blanket."

"I did like camping with you.  I'll be back.  I'm a little overdressed for the occasion."

He leaves my bedroom, and I hear him moving around in the kitchen.  Maybe he's putting our leftover Chinese food away.  When he comes back, he's dressed in a pair of boxer shorts.

"You're not overdressed any more," I comment.  He climbs into bed with me and wraps his arm around my waist.

"I love you," he says.

"I love you too," I reply.  I turn to face him.  I get an idea.  I begin to put my hands into his boxer shorts.

He brushes my hand away.  "No June," he says.  I give him a confused look.  "I don't remember being with you the first time," he explains.  "I mean, _really_ remember.  Everything I do remember is from a dream, and I don't know how accurate that would be.  I want -- I want us to do this together, okay?"  He looks at me with seriousness.  "I'm not leaving you or anything.  We'll have plenty of opportunities to enjoy being together when you have a clean bill of health."

I nod.  He pulls me closer, and I close my eyes.  That's the last thing I remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer's block: when your imaginary friends aren't speaking to you. Unfortunately, these imaginary friends are still not speaking to me for chapters 23 and the last half of chapter 22; however, the imaginary friends on my other Legend fanfic have been speaking to me. I don't know how many chapters are left, but mostly what is left in the book is tying up the loose ends and putting the characters in place so they can live happily ever after. AND, I just keep asking Legend "what if" questions, and have yet another idea for another whole story... which could turn out to be pretty long, but I might do a few chapters at some point and then just post it, because there's one section that might be cute just as it is, and I can finish it at some point later. As soon as I finish the first draft of Hero, I'll start revising it and publishing it.


End file.
